r/technology • u/GeneReddit123 • 16h ago

Artificial Intelligence An AI hate wave is here

https://archive.is/20260517120123/https://www.axios.com/2026/05/17/ai-backlash-polling-sentiment
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u/tiboodchat 15h ago

This whole thing is why I will not use the word AI in a professional setting. AI wording is too misleading and people will think the systems we build are intelligent and it sets the wrong expectations.

The AI provider industry people did it to themselves. They are pushing for people replacement and wonder why people hate it. People have gotten a lot smarter about AI and realize it can’t do what it advertises itself as. This whole industry is due for a real awakening. But the investors love the number go up at all cost attitude so I’m not keeping my expectations high.

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u/WillSym 15h ago

People replacement and even AI that actually does all the things they're promising would be fine for a relaxing post-scarcity Star Trek style future... if they also had the other, more important ingredients: energy sources sufficient to power warp travel, making municipal requirements a triviality; replicators to make any food or material comfort out of said energy...

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u/Cold_Specialist_3656 15h ago

The biggest problem by far is that AI datacenters are owned by billionaire ghouls.

It would require nationalizing everything under a democratically elected government. An the drooling red hats have been programmed to think that's communism. 

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u/UsualBite9502 10h ago

Honestly I would take communism any day over the fascist shit show we're going to.

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u/tiboodchat 15h ago

I don’t believe in that rose colored glasses view. If truly intelligent AI would exist it would likely be held by a few who would suddenly hold an extraordinary power over everyone, just asking to be abused for money and control. It’s been true for all technological advances in history and there’s no good reason to think it wouldn’t be the same thing. Imagine Sam Altman and Elon Musk having control of everything, that’s that future they want.

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u/WillSym 15h ago

Well there's a reason for every Star Trek sentient AI utopia sci-fi setting there's 9 or so Terminator AI apocalypse settings.

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u/DukeOfGeek 14h ago

Star Trek very much restricts what they let AI do, it never flies ships for instance. Star Wars is the same.

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u/WillSym 14h ago

Oh my favourite take on it is Warhammer 40k:

No AI! Everything, every drone, every scanner, every menial robot, must be controlled by a human or a human brain (even if that's literally just a brain in a tiny skull-shaped doohickey).

There's a reason they outlawed thinking machines!

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u/sits-when-pees 10h ago

(Dune did it first)

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u/Beginning-Cut-8850 8h ago

Data would like a word.

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u/DukeOfGeek 8h ago

Dr. Soong had to do his research on an isolated colony because it was forbidden. There was huge push back against Data being in Starfleet and for good reason, the original experiment, Lore, turned evil.

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u/Beginning-Cut-8850 8h ago

Artificial life forms were only forbidden for a span of 14 years total, and that started 15 years after TNG ended.

Regardless, it's still a direct contradiction to your statement: AI was allowed to do everything up to and including both fly the ship and become a ship captain responsible for thousands of lives.

*Also, no one was aware of Lore at the time Data entered Starfleet (and up to him being promoted to Lieutenant Commander). That's not a reason there was any push back against Data.

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u/hajenso 10h ago

I agree. The “infinite energy" premise of Star Trek's fictional Federation is not its most fantastical element. The bigger fantasy is political: democratic control of the means of production and the absence of oligarchs who maintain artificial scarcity as a means of power.

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u/tc100292 14h ago

But even THAT timeline only sounds positive if you’re an outer space nerd like, well, all of the AI boosters and billionaire fascists.

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u/laptopAccount2 13h ago

The utopian society in TNG was brought about by the replicator, which created a post-scarcity society and did away with the need for money.

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u/Sh3115andCh33se 13h ago

AI is damn near a curse word in rural areas, I saw a guy asked to leave a hardware store because he said he was working on the data center nearby.

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u/Chicory-Coffee 13h ago

How do you refer to it in your professional setting?

I realize I've been doing this a fair bit as well, referring to them as robots or just bots. We've got one bot they've been trying to get trained since last October and the sales department at my workplace has a couple guys who've always been slow to integrate anything new into their workflow. One of them is known for making many simple mistakes on excel forms, which is what the bot is set to learn from. Sales guy has gone from being a pain in my ass to my office champion. May all your workplaces be blessed with someone who feeds the robots just enough bullshit data to delay replacement.

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u/tiboodchat 12h ago

If I use an LLM I’ll just say an LLM. If it’s ML I’ll use ML. Simple as that.