AI backlash as the new face of populist resistance to American capitalism
By
Brian Merchant
Crisp on the outside, thoughtful on the inside. A keeper.
Summary
The article discusses the growing backlash against AI, framed as "AI populism," which the author argues is simply a new manifestation of populist sentiment directed at the economic and social disruptions caused by AI technologies. It uses the example of a commencement speaker being booed by students for praising AI as the "next industrial revolution." The piece critically examines how AI is being positioned as the latest avatar of American capitalism, and how public resistance to it reflects deeper anxieties about job displacement, inequality, and corporate power rather than a rejection of technology itself.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledWhen a commencement speaker at the University of Central Florida intoned that 'AI is the next industrial revolution,' she was met with a chorus of thundering boos from the graduating students in attendance.
The mass disapproval left the orator, Gloria Caulfield, Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Tavistock Development Company, flustered and unmoored.
She fumbled through the rest of the portion of her speech amid more jeers and exclamations of 'AI sucks,' which didn't relent until she noted that AI wasn't a factor in our lives just a few years ago, to which the grads cheered.
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