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highplainsdem

(61,154 posts)
44. Liberals are supposed to be good people, concerned about others and wanting fairness. That's all I'm
Sat Feb 21, 2026, 10:44 AM
21 hrs ago

doing in opposing the nightmare of exploitation and unfairness that is the generative AI industry.

I don't know how much mockery/sarcasm you might've meant with that "you are a great person" line. I don't want flattery. I'm just trying to explain how much harm genAI does.

I think the legal and ethical questions around training data are complicated and still being worked out in courts and legislatures. Reasonable liberals can disagree on whether training on publicly available data constitutes theft in the way you describe. That debate is ongoing, and I support clearer rules, compensation models, and guardrails.


Actually, no, reasonable liberals can't disagree on whether training of genAI was and is theft. Publicly available is not the same thing as public domain, and never has been. Pretending they are is an automatic victory for the AI companies - which themselves are outraged and demand justice if they believe their intellectual property rights are being infringed upon.

And as a liberal, you should be well aware that both courts and legislatures can make unethical decisions favoring the wealthy and powerful. Which is what any decision attempting to legitimize theft would be. That's also part of why the AI companies have cozied up to Trump, tried to buy politicians, and are adding to war chests to try to ensure that politicians who want to regulate AI are defeated.

But I don’t accept the leap from “this technology has serious unresolved ethical issues” to “anyone who uses it is morally equivalent to someone who would support slavery or authoritarianism.” That’s a bridge too far for me. It turns a policy disagreement into a character indictment.


It is a question of moral choices. Everyone who knows of the worldwide and continuing IP theft that is the only reason genAI tools work at all well, and of all the other harm done by genAI, and still uses it voluntarily, has made a decision that they consider all those harms less important than what they believe they gain from its use.

And by not opposing genAI now, you're normalizing it, increasing the power of the AI companies, and making it less likely any of the harm that's being done will ever be stopped.

Your wearing and using AI glasses is advertising for the AI companies.

Those companies offer many AI tools for free or at very low prices not because they're so stupid they don't know the freebies are costing them money, or because they're donating use of those tools as philanthropy, but to both hook consumers on them and turn everyone using their AI into ads for AI.

I’m not trying to replace human creativity or help oligarchs crush culture. I still value human art, human writing, and human relationships. Using AI for other purposes doesn’t negate that.


You may not be trying to cause that harm, but you're enabling it.

A lot of AI users fall into the "dislike it in lots of ways but love it for this use" category.

That's semi-ethical, carving out an exception when it's useful for you.

It isn't an uncommon human trait. It's why the US had founders who could write about liberty and inalienable rights and still own slaves. The more people around them who owned slaves, the more comfortable they'd be with that hypocrisy. They'd also find ways to rationalize being very unethical in that one facet of their lives. And hey, the courts and legislatures told them it was fine...

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What could go wrong? FalloutShelter Tuesday #1
I hope all these products FAIL!!!! Multichromatic Tuesday #2
I have Ray-Ban Meta's that have been out for a couple of years now Polybius Tuesday #6
Because most people don't want to have to wonder if anyone wearing glasses is taking photos and/or highplainsdem Tuesday #9
Ray-Ban Meta's are a lot different than small companies who put out similar glasses Polybius Tuesday #10
Meta is planning to add facial recognition to its smart glasses. I guess you missed the news. highplainsdem Tuesday #12
No, we were talking about currently, not speculation on the future Polybius Tuesday #13
I don't believe there aren't ways to disable that light, or that it can't simply stop working. And highplainsdem Tuesday #14
There are ways, but it's quite complicated Polybius Tuesday #16
Btw, would you trust anyone wearing smart glasses and watching children to be watching innocently, highplainsdem Tuesday #15
I would thoroughly vet anyone around my kids Polybius Tuesday #17
No, we don't have to tolerate people wearing glasses that could be recording and storing photos, highplainsdem Tuesday #18
Google Glass was discontinued because it was expensive and the technology wasn't there yet in 2013 Polybius Wednesday #20
The reasons Google Glass was discontinued usually have privacy concerns at or near the top. Tech highplainsdem Wednesday #21
Smart glasses don't create new surveillance, they operate within the same legal framework Polybius Wednesday #28
You're much too trusting of AI companies and how desperate they always are for more training data. highplainsdem Wednesday #29
You're right about one thing: distrust of large tech companies is understandable Polybius Thursday #33
The formatting of your reply is very reminiscent of outputs from genAI. You're defending/promoting highplainsdem Thursday #35
I'll clear this up directly: it's me writing the replies Polybius Thursday #41
Thanks for explaining. And I'll accept your explanation because I would like to believe that people on highplainsdem Friday #42
Thank you for accepting my explanation, you are a great person Polybius Friday #43
Liberals are supposed to be good people, concerned about others and wanting fairness. That's all I'm highplainsdem 21 hrs ago #44
I wasn't being sarcastic at all when I said you're a good person Polybius 19 hrs ago #45
You keep trying to make a fundamentally unethical defense of an industry built on theft that highplainsdem 18 hrs ago #47
I'm not rooting for AI companies to "win a battle against artists" Polybius 9 hrs ago #50
Some Reddit threads on what people think of people wearing smart glasses: highplainsdem Wednesday #30
I honestly don't care what a handful of Reddit threads say Polybius Thursday #34
Thanks! architect359 17 hrs ago #48
This. And people are defending it. travelingthrulife Wednesday #22
To all those consuming morons willing to buy this junk, I would like to quote Jim Morrison by saying.... Crowman2009 Tuesday #3
"They were a double pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses" muriel_volestrangler Tuesday #4
LOL... Thank you for my laugh of the day FemDemERA Tuesday #5
I have zero doubt that the people who buy these products Skittles Tuesday #7
Just........ Red Mountain Tuesday #8
Google's brand of smart glasses, Google Glass, were discontinued soon after they were introduced highplainsdem Tuesday #11
Reminds me of this parody. Crowman2009 Tuesday #19
Just no! SheltieLover Wednesday #23
They are trying to normalize surveillance! SheltieLover Wednesday #24
Yes! And it surprises and disappoints me that any Democrats, any liberals, would be okay with this, highplainsdem Wednesday #25
Absolutely in agreement with all you've stated! SheltieLover Wednesday #27
I wouldn't want an apple product unless it was made of gold and given to me by cook yaesu Wednesday #26
I'm still waiting for my Honewell kitchen computer... hunter Wednesday #31
That ad is so hilarious - and sexist. highplainsdem Thursday #36
It keeps them out of trouble. hunter Thursday #38
I plan to sell my house so I can buy all those goodies! chouchou Thursday #32
The prices are coming down, unfortunately. Which means that more and more teachers will have to highplainsdem Thursday #37
Your words are true. Personally, I've never liked the idea that some students can easily... chouchou Thursday #39
Oh great, now jealous husbands can spy on their wives FakeNoose Thursday #40
Apple's products have gone from amazing to shit Prairie Gates 19 hrs ago #46
Besides the whole being an insane mass murderer thing, the Unabomber may have had a point or two about technology. LudwigPastorius 17 hrs ago #49
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