The Case Against AI

We need to talk. The world is being reshaped by a technology that almost nobody asked for, with social and environmental costs that pile up as unregulated tech companies amass ever more power over our lives. It feels like it's infecting everything at the very moment when our politics and civil discourse can least handle it. At a time when it seems we have little agency over our own future.

Yet many of us use these tools every day, either directly or indirectly, in some cases because we feel like we have to just to keep up. We're often told we need to be AI literate to get good paying work, or to get an education. But also because it sometimes feels like it's amplifying our creative or professional capabilities.

How should we feel about this technology and the people/orgs who wield it? And how should this drive our actions as ethical citizens who care about our community, and the planet?

This informal gathering invites the community (especially those who feel like they're being harmed) to articulate the case against AI. Not to deny its real or potential benefits, but to deeply consider the costs. Just a few:

\- Environmental impact (energy, water, noise, blight) \- Stolen work ("the slop") \- Lost jobs \- Psychological dependency \- The concentration of power \- The existential risk of runaway machine intelligence

Underneath all of it are deep questions that pre-date the chatbots. Why do we work? Who is designing our collective future? What is craft when we make it fast and cheap to do? Who benefits from all these new tools? These questions didn't start with AI, but it does give them new urgency.