"In The Making of the English Working Class, the leftwing historian EP Thompson made a point of challenging the condescension of history towards luddism, the original anti-tech movement. The early 19th-century croppers and weavers who rebelled against new technologies should not be written off as blindly resisting machinery, wrote Thompson in his classic history. They were opposing a laissez-faire logic that dismissed its disastrous impact on their lives."
"Unlicensed use of their creative labour to train generative AI has delivered vast revenues to Silicon Valley while rendering their livelihoods increasingly precarious. The wider public shares such concerns. According to new research by the Tony Blair Institute, a large plurality of Britons see AI as a risk to the economy, rather than as an opportunity. Viewed from the perspective of actual and future workers, it is not hard to understand why."
Early 19th-century Luddites opposed a laissez-faire logic that ignored machinery's disastrous effects on livelihoods. Modern creative workers, including photographers, coders and writers, face unlicensed use of their labour to train generative AI that produces vast revenues for Silicon Valley while precarising incomes. Public opinion in Britain increasingly views AI as an economic risk rather than an opportunity. Automation threatens entry-level white-collar jobs. Energy-hungry datacentres promoted by UK-US tech deals will create environmental costs with little long-term employment. Opaque algorithms have caused injustices, sown discord, and amplified extremism and disinformation, undermining social cohesion and trust.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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