In the USA, thousands of people are killed every year by car drivers. This is tolerated without a peep, relatively speaking, even though 20 times as many pedestrians are killed by drivers as are killed by mass shootings that dominate the news and voter issues.
So I predict the number of people we will tolerate being killed every year to have good AI will be more than zero, much more.
In my view, AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society where massive redistribution has no/few downsides. If all labor is done by AIs then the price of everything will go to near zero and everyone can have a government mandated middle class lifestyle. Therefore I find it ironic that leftists oppose AI progress.
"Technology will free mankind from labor and usher in an era where everyone is simply allocated whatever they requre" was a staple of leftism up until the USSR collapsed.
The difference is that today, unlike in the 20th century, there's a feasible path to post-scarcity. It's not "around the corner" but there's a path if you squint. Myabe it won't pan out, but it's worth a shot. The irony is that leftists want to ban AI to preserve scarcity thereby protecting people's jobs.
Labor is one thing, but there will always be some scarcity such as natural resources. I still doubt all labor could be done by AI alone at any point in the next couple generations.
First of all, lefists oppose AI progress _because_ all labor is to be done by AIs. If corporations and states only need you for your labor and that can be done more cheaply by machines, then why keep you around at all?
Second of all, the massive redistribution shows no signs of appearing anytime soon. In the meantime the industry is in the midst of hysteria about a "permanent underclass" [1]. And this is all happening using models built off of the works of all writers, artists, and creatives everywhere, which said creatives have to then rent from the labs.
Actually, Heaven is our best shot at a post-scarcity society /s
AI has achieved the same religious undertones as your average cult. Is the new god of the gaps for some tech people. The wild card to achieve anything.
I don't think everyone having a middle class lifestyle where prices go near zero is what AI bros mean when they say AI will create a "permanent underclass".
Is there any evidence that "all labor" could be done by AI?
It doesn't seem to me like we have any guarantee that AI will contribute to public wellbeing. Right now, the public is socializing the losses while the industry privatizes the technology and cozies up to the federal government. LLMs will be usable for mass surveillance and war long before it ever leads us to a post-scarcity society.
https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2095542398084415952
“We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence — an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario.
That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that.”
Anybody who disagrees with the ban on superintelligence in principle, maybe not in practice, is a traitor to humanity and should be treated as such. Why would you support the existence of an alien intelligence running rampant in the world? So this one might as well be virtue signaling, though I don’t doubt there are a lot of anti-humanist readers here ready to tell me I’m wrong.
If people like him their way, we'd still be farming with shovels and weaving our clothes by hand.
Banning automation is shortsighted and stupid; you refuse to let people increase the size of the pie because you're worried it'll make your fraction smaller. But a smaller fraction of a bigger pie is still a bigger piece.
That's not what the bill is about. Did you read the article? It's explicitly about catastrophic risks:
> “Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders said. “The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control... That’s why I am introducing legislation to immediately pause the development of increasingly powerful AI and ban the creation of systems that humanity cannot fully control"
If we're banning superintelligence, we might as well ban genies from granting wishes and ban aliens from outside the solar system from establishing residence on Earth.
That is very rational. Finally some politicians realize that there can be AI treaties with Russia and China similar to the INF treaty (banned medium range nuclear missiles). The INF treaty worked from 1987 until Trump tore it up in 2019.
Something gives me the feeling that Sanders and Chomsky were both put on this earth to manufacture liberal hysteria towards AI. It's a good thing that we discredited Chomsky before we knew about his Epstein connections, and I'm inclined to ignore Sanders' armchair fearmongering in the same vein too. It's artificial and bizarre, and a fear that I cannot empathize with given what we know and see from LLMs.
In the USA, thousands of people are killed every year by car drivers. This is tolerated without a peep, relatively speaking, even though 20 times as many pedestrians are killed by drivers as are killed by mass shootings that dominate the news and voter issues.
So I predict the number of people we will tolerate being killed every year to have good AI will be more than zero, much more.
In my view, AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society where massive redistribution has no/few downsides. If all labor is done by AIs then the price of everything will go to near zero and everyone can have a government mandated middle class lifestyle. Therefore I find it ironic that leftists oppose AI progress.
This is either a troll or a shockingly naive understanding of how scarce resources are allocated
"Technology will free mankind from labor and usher in an era where everyone is simply allocated whatever they requre" was a staple of leftism up until the USSR collapsed.
The difference is that today, unlike in the 20th century, there's a feasible path to post-scarcity. It's not "around the corner" but there's a path if you squint. Myabe it won't pan out, but it's worth a shot. The irony is that leftists want to ban AI to preserve scarcity thereby protecting people's jobs.
Human-wellfare aligned, safe AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society. Huggingface-hacking sycophants are not that.
Leftists oppose human suffering and disempowerment.
The future trillionaires who just lowered taxes and mocked social security recipients are going to give up products from their companies for free?
Maybe there will also be world peace!
"post-scarcity society"
Labor is one thing, but there will always be some scarcity such as natural resources. I still doubt all labor could be done by AI alone at any point in the next couple generations.
First of all, lefists oppose AI progress _because_ all labor is to be done by AIs. If corporations and states only need you for your labor and that can be done more cheaply by machines, then why keep you around at all?
Second of all, the massive redistribution shows no signs of appearing anytime soon. In the meantime the industry is in the midst of hysteria about a "permanent underclass" [1]. And this is all happening using models built off of the works of all writers, artists, and creatives everywhere, which said creatives have to then rent from the labs.
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-for...
I think this view needs to get out and meet some actual humans.
Actually, Heaven is our best shot at a post-scarcity society /s
AI has achieved the same religious undertones as your average cult. Is the new god of the gaps for some tech people. The wild card to achieve anything.
I don't think everyone having a middle class lifestyle where prices go near zero is what AI bros mean when they say AI will create a "permanent underclass".
I'm with slibhb. The death of all humans is a feature, not a downside.
granted, my ghost will be darkly amused at ChatHK47. Death to meatbag scum!
Is there any evidence that "all labor" could be done by AI?
It doesn't seem to me like we have any guarantee that AI will contribute to public wellbeing. Right now, the public is socializing the losses while the industry privatizes the technology and cozies up to the federal government. LLMs will be usable for mass surveillance and war long before it ever leads us to a post-scarcity society.
Bill summary: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Ban-Artifi...
https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2095542398084415952 “We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence — an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario.
That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that.”
Anybody who disagrees with the ban on superintelligence in principle, maybe not in practice, is a traitor to humanity and should be treated as such. Why would you support the existence of an alien intelligence running rampant in the world? So this one might as well be virtue signaling, though I don’t doubt there are a lot of anti-humanist readers here ready to tell me I’m wrong.
>Anybody who disagrees with the ban on superintelligence in principle, maybe not in practice, is a traitor to humanity
Oh, so anybody who disagrees with me is evil?
This is the kind of attitude that ruined US politics.
You actually support an intelligence beyond human control. Yes, you are evil.
"Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech"
We've been down this road before with cryptography. No, it's not going to work.
If people like him their way, we'd still be farming with shovels and weaving our clothes by hand.
Banning automation is shortsighted and stupid; you refuse to let people increase the size of the pie because you're worried it'll make your fraction smaller. But a smaller fraction of a bigger pie is still a bigger piece.
That's not what the bill is about. Did you read the article? It's explicitly about catastrophic risks:
> “Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders said. “The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control... That’s why I am introducing legislation to immediately pause the development of increasingly powerful AI and ban the creation of systems that humanity cannot fully control"
If we're banning superintelligence, we might as well ban genies from granting wishes and ban aliens from outside the solar system from establishing residence on Earth.
That is very rational. Finally some politicians realize that there can be AI treaties with Russia and China similar to the INF treaty (banned medium range nuclear missiles). The INF treaty worked from 1987 until Trump tore it up in 2019.
Intelligence is a weapon?
points gun from space
Always has been.
Something gives me the feeling that Sanders and Chomsky were both put on this earth to manufacture liberal hysteria towards AI. It's a good thing that we discredited Chomsky before we knew about his Epstein connections, and I'm inclined to ignore Sanders' armchair fearmongering in the same vein too. It's artificial and bizarre, and a fear that I cannot empathize with given what we know and see from LLMs.