Newton-Rex, Ed. (2024, July 27). Robots sacked, screenings shut down: a new movement of luddites is rising up against AI. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/27/harm-ai-artificial-intelligence-backlash-human-labour.

This article is good because it lists carefully the best reasons people are opposed to AI, and it lists carefully the different places the new Luddite movement is taking hold. When they put cones on the driverless taxis, that's a pretty clear protest, isn't it?

The one thing I'll say about the new Luddite movement is that it's got wide support. I say this as a writer, a retired professional ESL teacher most of whose friends are very similar - the people I know are almost universally hostile toward AI. And it doesn't get any more generous as people know less about it. We can all sense that it's taking jobs away, and taking the soul out of the world we live in.

What has saved us so far is the law(?) that one must disclose when one is using AI. I'm not sure it's even a law, but it seems to be a standard expectation. The people who do use it, and disclose it, find themselves the target of hostility and open rejection. People don't want it.

One other thing I liked about the article was the recognition that modern Luddites, as well as the original ones, don't want elimination of the new technology so much as they simply want to be included in the discussion of how and when it's used. Is that too much to ask? We know coming into this that the new tech will railroad all the existing systems if left unchecked; we'll be doomed. I'm already feeling like half of what I read is soulless; on the other end it doesn't care who I am. I heartily prefer a writer who is talking to me. Is that so unusual?

I consider myself a new Luddite, if that's how it's defined. I'm just in favor of our at least trying to find out what we will lose in the process. If you really know what you'll lose, and do it anyway, then it's like marriage, in my opinion. For better or worse.