Being Anti AI Doesn’t Excuse Being Uninformed

I’m getting increasingly tired of the blanket, knee jerk hatred toward anything involving AI.

You don’t have to like AI. You don’t have to use it. There are legitimate criticisms worth discussing, including copyright, privacy, labor, misinformation, energy use, corporate behavior, and plenty more.

But if you’re going to criticize it, do your research first.

What bothers me is the growing number of people who seem almost proud of not understanding the technology while simultaneously speaking about it with absolute certainty. They repeat misinformation, lump every AI system and every use case together, demonize anyone who uses it, and then act as though their position automatically makes them morally superior.

That isn’t thoughtful criticism. It’s virtue signaling dressed up as principle.

There is an enormous difference between criticizing how a technology is being used and deciding that the technology itself, and everyone who touches it, is inherently bad.

AI is a tool. It can be used poorly, irresponsibly, creatively, productively, exploitatively, or intelligently, just like countless technologies before it.

Being skeptical is healthy. Asking hard questions is healthy. Calling out abuse is healthy.

Being intentionally uninformed and hostile isn’t.

At some point, refusing to learn anything about a technology while loudly condemning everyone who uses it stops being principled skepticism and starts looking a lot more like modern Luddism.

You don’t have to embrace AI.

But at least understand what you’re angry about.