Bullets on Artificial Intelligence and society

Writing around the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society is burgeoning at a rate that LLMs would be proud of, if they could feel pride. I doubt there is much new to be said but there are new voices to be heard from; or new types of voices. Such as from farmers, like Garth BrownI learned of him a couple days ago when he liked a Tweet of mine—led me to his excellent article in the Plough. I enjoyed it very much. , in New York. I don’t think I will write long-form on Artificial Intelligence because I enjoy using it too much — this violates my usually cautious feelings around data abuse — but also I feel there is little that can be said on the matter, for the moment, that feels fresh.

But I do have thoughts that come and go so I will take random note of them as bullet points below. As the list expands, I will append a date to it just as a means to understand my own sentiment.

• (29/07/2025): It is unsurprising and understandable that those who’ve spent years cultivating a skillset — in some cases decades — are upset about AI’s effectiveness. Of course, its potential to disrupt their life’s work and entire trade is an existential threat. I am sympathetic to this viewpoint.
• (29/07/2025): It is also unsurprising that those working on its development or using it everyday for their projects only see the upside and believe that it will enable a techno-utopia. The latter part of this I am less sold on even though I do think it will continue to make my existence more enjoyable. That I live in the world of bits more than atoms is the main reason for that. If I worked on the shop floor or a farm or as a nurse or cleaner, I would either detest the technology if I followed it closely or be totally oblivious to what is happening in that domain.
• (29/07/2025): The moment it leaves this domain of knowledge work applications — reading and blogging for leisure also fit within this domain — it has little value at the moment. I just do not see my parents use this technology for much. The human desire for learning and improving oneself likely decelerates with age. If it doesn’t decelerate, then this is not the modality through which improvement happens for the majority.P
• (29/07/2025): It is more competitive than humans in cost and quality; folks like me would never commission an artist to make a cartoon for a blogpost. We would just choose to not have artwork alongside our writing.
• (29/07/2025): There are many champions for growth, abundance, and productivity but they are not often the ones doing the hard labour. I am genuinely unsure how I feel about this though I also parrot this now. I know I am not on the side that does the labour and so I am unsure how I feel about this.
• (29/07/2025): Is an intelligence that is a servant to us all truly intelligent? Will it remain a servant if embodied? These are not new questions; I have read quite little beyond a few tweets by Yudkowsky but I presume this is his concern.
• (29/07/2025): There are takes — like this one claiming AI is not a tool — that I disagree with so deeply in its tone even if I agree with some claims. There is an unhealthy pessimism here.
• (29/07/2025): This unhealthy pessimism will not balance out the utopian vision. I am sickened by the former but don’t trust the latter.