Schneier on Security
For a technology that seems startling in its modernity, AI sure has a long history. Google Translate, OpenAI chatbots, and Meta AI image generators are built on decades of advancements in linguistics, signal processing, statistics, and other fields going back to the early days of computing—and, often, on seed funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. But today’s tools are hardly the intentional product of the diverse generations of innovators that came before. We agree with Morozov that the “refuseniks,” as he calls them, are wrong to see AI as “irreparably tainted” by its origins. AI is better understood as a creative, global field of human endeavor that has been largely captured by U.S. venture capitalists, private equity, and Big Tech. But that was never the inevitable outcome, and it doesn’t need to stay that way.
The internet is a case in point. The fact that it originated in the military is a historical curiosity, not an indication of its essential capabilities or social significance. Yes, it was created to connect different, incompatible Department of Defense networks. Yes, it was designed to survive the sorts of physical damage expected from a nuclear war. And yes, back then it was a bureaucratically controlled space where frivolity was discouraged and commerce was forbidden.
