Robots sacked, screenings shut down: a new movement of luddites is rising up against AI
E arlier this month, a popular lifestyle magazine introduced a new “fashion and lifestyle editor” to its huge social media following. “Reem”, who on first glance looked like a twentysomething woman who understood both fashion and lifestyle, was proudly announced as an “AI enhanced team member”. That is, a fake person, generated by artificial intelligence. Reem would be making product recommendations to SheerLuxe’s followers – or, to put it another way, doing what SheerLuxe would otherwise pay a person to do. The reaction was entirely predictable: outrage, followed by a hastily issued apology. One suspects Reem may not become a staple of its editorial team.
This is just the latest in a long line of walkbacks of “exciting AI projects” that have been met with fury by the people they’re meant to excite. The Prince Charles Cinema in Soho, London, cancelled a screening of an AI-written film in June, because its regulars vehemently objected. Lego was pressured to take down a series of AI-generated images it published on its website. Doctor Who started experimenting with generative AI, but quickly stopped after a wave of complaints. A company swallows the AI hype, thinks jumping on board will paint it as innovative, and entirely fails to understand the growing anti-AI sentiment taking hold among many of its customers.
Behind the backlash is a range of concerns about AI. Most visceral is its impact on human labour: the chief effect of using AI in many of these situations is that it deprives a person of the opportunity to do the same work. Then there is the fact that AI systems are built by exploiting the work of the very people they’re designed to replace, trained on their creative output and without paying them. The technology has a tendency to sexualise women, is used to make deepfakes, has caused tech companies to miss climate targets and is not nearly well enough understood for its many risks to be mitigated. This has understandably not led to universal adulation. As Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Studio Ghibli, the world-renowned animation studio, has said: “I am utterly disgusted … I strongly feel that [AI] is an insult to life itself.”
