My spouse sent me this rage bait photo. It wasn’t even the ego rubbing graphic on the front page that got me (though that’s bad enough). It’s’ the “Moral panic over data centres” that really gets my goat. Ah yes, it’s the moral panic that’s the issue, right? Right?!
A moral panic is distinct because it’s a false threat that actually distracts from real dangers as it maintains the status quo. It’s wave of “witch hunting” and “scapegoating.”
If anything, the AI doomer bullshit about “AGI will kill (most of) us (not me tho because I’m a good believer)” is the moral panic.
I was recently listening to someone (can’t remember who sorry) talking about the doom porn being intentional - AI companies can’t admit that their software is buggy crap that doesn’t work as advertised and that progress is stagnating (which would tank shares) so instead go on about how AI will kill us all so that they have an easy excuse to ‘slow’ progress so they can white knight save us from the terrible, horrible, murderous, genocidal, dooms day AI (please don’t look behind the curtain).