Climate change is an issue, but this hardcore stance with no nuance isn’t helping. The extreme strawman slippery slopes don’t help, either.
You’ve got a capitalism problem, not an AI one
Data centers don’t require any of those things. It absolutely can and should be regulated (or even existing laws enforced.) Irresponsible implementation is an issue, but if the only people with any familiarity with the technology don’t care to do any of that? Do you think there is a world where this genie goes back into a bottle?
AI is indisputably helpful in many situations. Most people who I know that use AI generally use local models and that can cover 95% of what people want or need to do with it. (You might have a bit of a blindspot there). But there is a place for the big models as well.
You’re right, they’re not mutually exclusive words, but I’m going to thoroughly disagree that people are talking about those specific companies when talking about AI as a technology, which we certainly are here.
You might not like the product that is Claude or whoever, but I don’t like Irwin hammers, doesn’t mean it’s not an effective tool. And it doesn’t stop the world from utilizing it. And it doesn’t automatically make the job any less correct.
No one is out here trying to have the AI be their OS, they’re using it to build things, so the house thing isnt any better. Keeping those teens off the jobsite is only going to stop that house, not the industry. You don’t want to live in it, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be exactly what someone else needs. And those kids did get some experience, even if its just the walls falling down around their ears. Next one will be better.
Would it be ideal if everything was inherently safer and more thoroughly understood by the masses? Yes. Is it a reality that is achievable?