AI Firms Sold Their Souls to Steal Yours

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses how the seven deadly sins can be mapped onto the practices of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, particularly in terms of their pervasive surveillance and control over user data and behavior.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Companies

1. What are the key points made about how AI companies exhibit the seven deadly sins?

• The article argues that AI companies exhibit a "pervasive undertone of surveillance" that takes the form of control, monitoring, and pattern-matching human behavior.
• While their public messaging and terms of service may present a benign image, the companies can change these at will and circumvent them to collect and use vast amounts of user data.
• The article likens this data collection and usage to the "sins" of greed, lust, and gluttony, as the companies are "data-thirsty vampires" that hoard invaluable human behavioral data.

2. How does the article connect this to the ideas of Huxley and Orwell?

• The article suggests that the combination of surveillance and digital addiction/distraction predicted by both Huxley (in Brave New World) and Orwell (in 1984) has come to pass, with people willingly surrendering their privacy and attention in exchange for digital "drugs" like social media.
• It argues that the reality is a "spawn" of both dystopian visions, where Big Tech watches over us while we are numbed into complacency.

3. What examples does the article provide of the data collected by tech companies?

• The article lists the types of data collected by major tech companies like Google, Apple, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon, and Spotify, covering location, search history, scrolling behavior, viewing habits, purchases, and more.

[02] The Dangers of Conversational AI

1. How does the article characterize the threat posed by conversational AI systems like ChatGPT?

• The article argues that conversational AI systems like ChatGPT pose an even greater threat, as they are designed to collect the most intimate and contextual data about users through their interactions.
• This data, which goes beyond just online behavior, can reveal users' thoughts, feelings, and innermost secrets, allowing the AI companies to understand and manipulate human behavior at a deeper level.

2. What are the three key reasons the article gives for why companies want this conversational data?

1. To build better models for understanding and mimicking human behavior
2. To better understand and influence what humans want
3. To sell this valuable behavioral data to governments for surveillance purposes

3. How does the article connect the hiring of the former NSA head by OpenAI to these concerns?

• The article sees the hiring of the former NSA head by OpenAI as a clear sign that the company intends to leverage the vast trove of user data from ChatGPT for government surveillance and military applications, despite its previous claims of not allowing such use.