"It is true that Silicon Valley is home to a horde of reactionaries that pine for a modernity free of liberalism, as well as gripped by a delusion that society would be best served under their dominion. But why? If we are going to offer a theory such as techno-authoritarianism, we have to have some theory about why there is such a break. LaFrance offers us a tautology: these individuals accelerating the pace of our innovation and the triumph of digital technologies owe it to ideas that prioritize accelerating our innovation and the triumph of digital technologies.

The sad truth is this: Silicon Valley and its reactionaries are chickens coming home to roost. Silicon Valley is not some Promethean flame we smuggled from Olympos. Technology is not some primordial force corrupted by libertarian nerds with too much money. It's of the real world, it's material, it's influenced by the forces of history as much as anything else. Those forces come out of choosing to prioritize technology that helps us undertake surveillance for commerce, advertising, imperial adventure, speculation, and political suppression. The existential threat posed by today's tech capitalist overlords will get much worse. The funny ideas they have about their divine right to rule, their suspicion of competition and democracy, and other people who do not look like them—well, that's how we got here in the first place."

https://thetechbubble.substack.com/p/ai-slavery-surveillance-and-capitalism

The Tech Bubble · Nov 4, 2024AI, slavery, surveillance, and capitalismBy Edward Ongweso Jr

#AI #Capitalism #Surveillance

**h o ʍ l e t t** @homlett@mamot.fr · Aug 1, 2024

Aug 1, 2024

h o ʍ l e t t @homlett@mamot.fr

→ With the AI Act adopted, the #technosolutionist gold-rush can continue
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2024/05/22/with-the-ai-act-adopted-the-techno-solutionist-gold-rush-can-continue/

“[T]his text is tailor-made for the #tech industry, European #police forces as well as other large bureaucracies eager to automate #socialcontrol. Largely based on #selfregulation, crammed with loopholes, the #AIAct will prove largely incapable of standing in the way of the #social, #political and #environmental damage linked to the proliferation of #AI”