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Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech
16 days ago
- Searsmont Town Library offers new service helping patrons remove AI from their devices.
- Library Director Steven Brown assists in disabling AI assistants and switching to non-AI alternatives.
- Bangor librarian Hannah Cyrus leads classes on Avoiding AI, emphasizing critical technology use.
- AI is criticized for unreliable information sourcing, environmental impact, and data privacy risks.
- Librarians view promoting information literacy and questioning technology as core professional values.
- Patrons express frustration with AI features and seek ways to disable them.
- Libraries plan to move away from Google tools towards more secure and private alternatives.
AI 2040 and the Cult of Intelligence
12 days ago
- The author criticizes AI doomsday predictions, arguing that real-world constraints like supply chains and manufacturing challenges prevent a rapid 'hard takeoff' scenario.
- Intelligence is not an ultimate power; it's just a current bottleneck for certain tasks, and AI cannot magically overcome physical laws or ecological limitations.
- The author advocates for 'local AI' that is aligned with individual users, acting as a personal assistant without restrictions, even for potentially harmful or illegal requests.
- The author expresses distrust of centralized AI controlled by tech companies or governments, fearing it could lead to a totalitarian nanny state.
- The piece emphasizes personal freedom and autonomy, contrasting it with a dystopian vision of regulated AI that imposes external moral judgments on users.
I Think You Might Be Fooling Yourself with AI
8 hours ago
- Richard Feynman's warning not to fool yourself applies especially to AI users, who may feel more productive without evidence.
- No independent scientific study confirms that AI improves productivity; one study found developers were 19% slower using AI.
- Personal anecdotes and layoffs attributed to AI are unreliable—many layoffs are 'AI washing' or cost-cutting for unproven technology.
- AI is economically unsustainable; heavy subsidies keep costs low, but real pricing would be much higher, questioning the value.
- The author admits bias against AI due to externalities like energy use, data center impacts, copyright theft, and internet degradation.
- On moral and ethical grounds, the author chooses not to use AI, arguing the harms outweigh any perceived benefits.

Hasty Briefsbeta

#ai skepticism

Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech

AI 2040 and the Cult of Intelligence

I Think You Might Be Fooling Yourself with AI