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It’s really stunning how the USA has so swiftly shifted from being one of the most techno-optimistic and tech-industry-loving countries on earth, to a country where most people seem to assume - not incorrectly, at least in many cases - that tech is out to get them.

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com

Why is the U.S. public so much more negative on AI than almost anyone else? Well, I think the fact that the U.S. AI industry is being lead by a bunch of very visible, crazy weirdos who talk about how AI will take everyone’s job and maybe kill us all the time is a pretty key factor.

Being really enthusiastic about new technology and our scientific and technology industries was the USA’s brand for what, the entire 20th century? And seems like over the course of about 20 years, big tech and our abject failure to meaningfully regulate it has pretty successfully lit that on fire.

I’m sure some people in academia have actually studied the remarkable US shift from optimism about tech to intense pessimism, and I’d love to read that research if anyone has links.

Of course, while I share the public’s skepticism about surveillance, social media, and AI, I also am forced to admit that this techno-skepticism and distrust must also be linked to the antivaxxer movement and its distrust of vaccines (which I think is horrible, stupid, and dangerous)

"Facebook detected when teen girls deleted selfies so it could serve them beauty ads" Instagram/Facebook/Meta employees of suicides, mental illness caused by their radicalizing algorithms: "This is the business, Sarah. We’re proud of this" Consistent Zuckerberg and Joel Kaplan advertising ethics:

futurism.comFacebook Allegedly Detected When Teen Girls Deleted Selfies So It Could Serve Them Beauty AdsA recent tell-all by a Facebook insider reveals the insidious nature of Facebook's advertising empire, and the dangerous consequences.
Matt Burgess (WIRED)@mattburgess1.bsky.social

This is the second time in as many months when Meta's ads have been linked to child sexual abuse material—a BBC investigation last month looked at Instagram ads www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Reports *today* suggest Zuckerberg apologized to officials about this www.scmp.com/news/asia/so...

Zuckerberg lost $100 billion on the Metaverse and yet he still runs Facebook. They need to change the law so that you can't do IPOs where the CEO can't get removed by majority vote of regular shareholders. If you wanna do that shit, you gotta stay private.

It's not that they're out to GET me, but to fuck me. They are all contemptuous, blythe, unapologetic rent seekers. They reduce product quality, customer service, and safety measures, charge more for less, and say suck it.

Computer Science majors are expecting not to get jobs because of AI. Software engineers are either losing or hating their jobs because of AI. Mathematicians are retiring early because of AI. These people aren't usually an anti-technology crowd, but they aren't thrilled today.

I also think it's a more generalized awareness of the companies that are leading the tech sector now, are all generally seen as privacy invading parasites who have made society worse.

I'd be interested to see figures from before and after 2016. Cambridge Analytica was the biggest single turning point In aware of, pre-AI.