Less than 1 in 3 see AI as a hopeful development for humanity
Shocking results of new international survey revealed!
On Thursday last week Seismic Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to making responsible AI a human priority, released a report: "On the Razor's Edge: AI vs. Everything We Care About", in which they surveyed more than 10,000 people across the U.S. and Europe on their attitudes towards AI…and it ain’t good!
The report reveals that the public is beginning to question the narrative that AI is a net positive. Instead, it claims, people see AI as something that will make their lives worse in deeply personal ways, from eroding relationships to making it harder for their children to find work, to amplifying social inequality.
“Our survey shows that people actually do care about AI, as a matter of social importance, because they've begun to understand that AI will have an impact on their lives. On their children and families. On their relationships. On their jobs. On their mental health. This data proves that AI already is a matter of public concern, and, as tensions grow, one that is about to break into the mainstream."
Sander Volten, founder and CEO of Seismic Foundation.
The goal of the report appears to be galvanising greater support for advocacy and civic action around AI, not to stop it but to curb its worst excesses and ensure it works for people not just broligarchs. Other key findings can be seen in the slide below or you can download the full report, free, from https://report2025.seismic.org.
Almost exactly a year ago I wrote about the rise of the anti-AI movement and this report seems to prove that the momentum continues to build and may be starting to have an impact…
Following YouTube’s announcement two weeks ago that it is demonetising “inauthentic” content, Meta has swiftly followed suit. The company announced in a blog last Monday that it will take additional measures to crack down on accounts sharing “unoriginal” content to Facebook, meaning those that repeatedly reuse someone else’s text, photos, or videos.
It has also removed 10 million profiles impersonating large content producers and taken action against 500,000 accounts that were engaged in “spammy behavior or fake engagement.” Those actions have included things like demoting the accounts’ comments and reducing the distribution of their content to prevent the accounts from monetising, which is good news.
But YouTube and Facebook aren’t doing this out of a sense of moral obligation - both belong to companies with massive AI capabilities after all. It’s because AI slop is actually eroding our attention and engagement, which is the source of their revenue. AI slop is like the fast food of content, it makes us feel dissatisfied and lazy, which actually prevents us from being able to sit still long enough or make the effort to engage with content in way’s that platforms can monetise. Both YouTube and Facebook’s audiences are growing but engagement has been declining for years.
If YouTube, Facebook and, for that matter, Netflix, Disney, Prime and the rest want to increase engagement they need to invest in more authentic and challenging content because slop is fast becoming a turn off, as is just about everything else AI produces right now.
To Do List
My recommendations for new things to read, watch, look at, listen to and do this week:
Pipeline is a 6-part true crime podcast from Britain’s Daily Mail and the most frightening thing I have ever listened to. It’s about a group of professional divers who were sucked into a 30-inch oil pipe deep beneath the Caribbean Sea and left there for 39 hours due to the inaction of the oil company. It will make your heart pound and your blood boil!
My new YouTube Channel is up and running and performing quite well with short videos based on my blogs if you want to give that a try:
And the first merch has been spotted on the streets of Singapore, which you can see on my fresh, clean Instagram Profile too!
Right, that’ll do ya! Cheers, Nx
I think a big part of the problem is that companies are tripping over themselves trying to insert AI everything. They're forcing it onto us and people are sick of it. I've began using open source software, like LibreOffice, to avoid Microsoft's Copilot, which is now everywhere. I hope the anti-AI backlash continues to grow.