In fact, if ChatGPT was just sitting there and existing, I probably wouldn’t hate it. Hate the people who used it and harassed “nice, unknowing” people? Of course, but that’s no real fault of the technology. Technology is a tool, and depends on the will of the people who use it and control it, and therein lies the problem.
At some point, the entire tech industry saw ChatGPT and fell into a collective psychosis and decided that, it This is the next big thing, and we need to wait to make sure that the predictions of generic AI/LLM becoming the next big thing are fulfilled.
I’m sure at this point copyrighted material was already being fed into LLM (I mean, you even had people voluntarily feeding it, like the example I gave above) but once TechBros got hold of it and wanted to accelerate it, suddenly Everything Facing the public to train their models was fair game. They didn’t care whether you consented to train their AI or not (which will later be introduced as a replacement for Creative, cool). If you posted a publicly accessible photo, they took it and Absolutely It was used for commercial purposes. Again, without asking your permission.
The situation became even more serious after the involvement of Money People. Investors declared that they were all on AI (arguably without understanding that it was beyond the trend of the time and believing the false promises that it was going to make them big money) and that anyone who did not go on AI would not get as good an investor return (if any). Your company will also be known as “behind the times” and doomed to fail because you didn’t get involved when it was hot. (Hmm, where have I heard this before? Oh yes. Crypto nerds yelling “NGMI” at people who have appropriately called them out for their arrogance.)
As you would expect, this resulted in companies taking the bait hook, line and sinker, and stuffing AI into services and devices that didn’t need it. That’s because investors demanded it, and companies didn’t want to get caught if these exaggerated claims of it being the next big thing turned out to be true. That’s where the hate is for me In fact started, because a lot of these companies Compelled The AI is dependent on you, with no means of exit. Maybe, at the corporate level, FOMO is an extremely dangerous drug.
It doesn’t matter what you did with an app or service it won’t be enhanced by AI. Whether you liked it or not, you had some stupid AI bot tied to you. It’s not what it’s supposed to be, and this is where my opinion started to change from neutral to “no, I hate it, get rid of it”.
When users started complaining about this, once again the issue of consent came to the fore. Completely Out the window. “Just try it, you’ll love it.” Or “This is the future, you better get used to it.” Or worse, “It’s here, we can’t put the genie back in the bottle, we better get on with it or be left behind.”
Usually when this happens, a privacy policy update is thrust upon users which contains a clause that essentially says that all of their data with said service is being logged. And Used for AI training. Again, without giving users the option or recourse to delete their accounts completely. (And even then, few companies retain the data, so there’s not even a sure way to be sure that your data isn’t used for training!)
You’ll notice a trend here: Consent has just gone away. 90% of the time the AI doesn’t exist when it walks into the room. Companies just force it on you and tell you to shut up and like it, or go away.
Thought it was bad enough? Oh, it gets worse.
Apparently not satisfied with destroying the concept of consent, AI boosters began increasing attacks on the creative sector, proudly claiming that hey, you can just use generic AI to create graphics and things, rather than having some annoying human do it for you! In fact, we would be destroying artists’ work without their consent in order to create these plagiarism machines and put them out of work as well. And worse, we’ll portray it as Good For them! We’d claim this makes art “more accessible”!
(Again, we’ve heard this before. Same song and dance from crypto bullshitters when they were pushing NFTs as “being good for artists so they can earn what they’re worth”.)
This is where my hatred of AI reached its peak. I’m a hobbyist photographer and I love dabbling in graphic design, and now they’re shooting it in my face. And then, telling me I like it better, or that I’m an ableist. (I’m not even kidding. I’ve seen people play the enabler card against anti-AI people who complain about putting artists out of work. I wish that were a joke.)
As if that wasn’t enough, if you’ve managed to carefully navigate the AI that gets in your face at every turn up to this point, well, fuck you! AI will help you in some way or the other! this time by Buying up all the manufacturing capacity for flash storage, RAM and hard drives! If we buy all the components for you to build your own computers and devices, good luck surviving AI! Submit everything to the cloud, it’s the only affordable option now, sucks!
*takes deep breath*
This is why – as I’ve been saying for some time – AI needs improvement. As it stands now, I don’t care how much good it might do, let alone what practical benefits it would have once TechBrows moves on to its next mark. I don’t care about it at all because AI companies screwed up first impressions so badly by telling me that consent is a foreign concept and I need to just go ahead and submit, or I’ll be left behind forever.
This blatant disregard for any kind of consent from the beginning is what did the most to turn me against anything AI has to offer.
If you want me to care about AI? start over. From zero. Consent should be its basic concept. If people don’t want to use it, Respect that opinion. Don’t take every no as a hidden yes. Don’t force it on people who don’t want it. And if people don’t want it, don’t yell “You’ll love it!” or “This is the future, move with it or be left behind!” On them.
Because that language sounds very similar to the language used in domestic abuse situations and is that really how you want to be treated? (Sadly, some of the psychopaths who spread this garbage nod yes with a smile on their face because they are absolutely corrupt. These people should not be allowed anywhere near the top of a tech company. But alas, this is 2026.)
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