The problem with tech bros looking to decide the fate of all humans is that they lack the multiple perspectives that are necessary to gain a holistic understanding of the human world. I am not claiming to have access to all those perspectives either, but then again, I am not looking to tell the tech bro how he should live his professional life.
There is a mediocre median that dominates the discourse surrounding technology in India. It is always amazing and worth having. Not much thought is paid to whether the new toy is needed or necessary or even healthy. Our tech bros, having grown up in this morass, hardly pay any thought to these matters either. Their motto seems to be - can do, will do. The should of it doesn't feature anywhere in their mindscape.
Their Western counterparts are no different, but because they grew up in a society where the ethics of technology does feature in drawing room conversations sometimes, they at least pretend to worry. In India, the range of these worries does not extend beyond price, battery life, and packaging.
Our popular tech discourse is in serious need of an upgrade. People shouldn't have to be convinced that their privacy matters, that their humanity matters, that their brain and all they can do with it matters.
I still remember tech bros on YouTube bragging about how their online businesses grew and their profits shot through the roof because of the pandemic. The glee was at first hard to understand, given that many of us had lost close ones to the pandemic. Later, it became apparent that nothing matters more than profit to the capitalist mindset.
Now, the same insensitivity is visible in the discourse surrounding AI and all that it can do and will do to us. I am of the belief that AI is a useful tool, but also that the tool should not become the workman.
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