Meredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024

Notable that this longstanding problem, which I and a few others have been naming for ~a decade, is now common sense.

It's true. AI is fundamentally a technology controlled by Big Tech. But the current 'solutions' to this problem would extend, not dilute, Big Tech control. 1/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/10/big-tech-companies-ai-research/

Silicon Valley is pricing academics out of AI research

A growing chorus of academics say the sky-high cost of working with AI models is boxing researchers out of the field, compromising independent study of the technology.

The Washington Post
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
The issue: Big Tech has the $$ infrastructure, data, ability to pay talent, and access to market which no one else does. So as academics, you either pay retail for access, or get it discounted/free by yoking yourself to Big Tech (via dual affiliation, or just being hired). 2/
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
IRL, no academic can afford to pay retail ($100b training runs, y'all). So, academic labs vie for access/proximity to Big Tech infra in pursuit of doing 'relevant' research--something that should alarm fans of academic neutrality/those concerned w conflict of interest. 3/
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
BUT the current proposals to alleviate this imbalance largely exacerbate it. Insofar as they amount to gov paying Big Tech to get academics access to Big Tech resources. This strengthens Big Tech control & further normalize access to Big Tech infra as "the way AI gets done." 4/
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
But it's not just this. By accepting the frame that such access is vital/necessary, we're buying into Big Tech marketing that says AI is real, lasting, and requires the diversion of billion$ (that could be spent otherwise). 5/
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
In reality, there is a thick cloud of smokey hype around AI, and it's not clear that the promises being made by the corps betting billions will ever be fulfilled (IMO gen AI is ~a solution in search of a problem so big it justifies the $$ to create/run it, which few do). 6/
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
Which raises a much more urgent question: does AI justify the diversion of such funding from, say, libraries, parks, schools, etc. to Google, Amazon, Microsoft on behalf of research? And if so, where's the hard proof backing this significant tradeoff? 7/
Show threadMeredith Whittaker
For more, a paper I wrote a few years ago: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4135581 8/
Mar 10, 2024 at 5:08pmWeb
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024

And this stellar report from Sarah Myers West and Jai Vipra, via AI Now. 9/

https://ainowinstitute.org/publication/policy/compute-and-ai

Computational Power and AI

By Jai Vipra & Sarah Myers WestSeptember 27, 2023 In this article What is compute and why does it matter? How is the demand for compute shaping AI development? What kind of hardware is involved? What are the components of compute hardware? What does the supply chain for AI hardware look like? What does the […]

AI Now Institute
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
(Bonus, for the vocab builders among us, the word 'iatrogenic' is helpful in metaphorically describing the false solution space current proposals present.)
Show threadJonasMar 10, 2024
@Mer__edith It’s the military-industrial complex 2.0. Just like the first wave of AI research, it seems endemically wedded to corporatism and geopolitics—in a much darker way than say, the birth of the consumer web and social media. I too have tried to maintain this point during these last years; some pundits and scholars seem to miss that bigger picture.
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
@adoranten yeah, but that first US-driven wave didn't have an industrialized globally-dominant (but US based) surveillance industry as accomplice in the same way we do now.
Show threadEllie Kennard has movedMar 10, 2024

@Mer__edith
I am currently watching this which perhaps you've seen? Relating to AI responsibility.

Not short, but worth watching.
https://youtu.be/cB0_-qKbal4?si=7NqgLab1177oAT3O

Center for Humane Technology Co-Founders Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin discuss The AI Dilemma

YouTube
Show threadMeredith WhittakerMar 10, 2024
@EllieK I have very strong disagreements with their analysis (tldr they leave the claims about tech capabilities made by corporate marketers unquestioned (even amplify them) in a way that ultimately promotes corporate hype, while proposing remedies that largely leave the core logics of these companies/their business models in tact)
Show threadEllie Kennard has movedMar 10, 2024
@Mer__edith
Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate your reply.
Show threadEllie Kennard has movedMar 10, 2024
@Mer__edith
@Rasta
You would find this comment interesting as it was your watching of the presentation by the Center for Humane Technology that inspired me to watch it.
Thanks again, Meredith.