People start to hate AI

People start to hate AI.

It's a very interesting phenomenon. Stronger than anything we witnessed before.

This negative emotion is tangible - in social media, in communities, in legislation.

4 years ago, AI was a curiosity.

1 year ago, it was still interesting.

Now it is ubiquitous - so people started hating it, en masse.

The reason is the SPEED of the change.

AI is a storm. It doesn't need 100 years, or 10 years - like fire, automobiles, electricity, or email. It changes everything, now.

So, we are all scared.

And our reaction becomes irrational.

It's more irrational than people burning books, when we were afraid of new ideas.

More irrational than Samurais, Zulus, and Amerindians charging with arrows and spears, against rifles, railways, and machine guns.

Of course, people post-rationalize this irrational hate. It's a typical process: First we feel emotions, than we post-rationalize. And the post-rationalizations are usually exaggerated; extreme. AI is the Devil - or sometimes a God.

"Datacenters are killing the planet / consume all our electricity / water" (no, they are not. The energy consumption is quite small, compared to... everything else).

"AI is taking over our jobs" (well, yes, but it is also creating even more jobs).

"AI will set us free, and nobody will need to work again" (of course not) (corollary: let's tax AI / robots. Bill Gates keeps saying this, since 2017...)

"AI is stupid, and cannot replace humans / artists / lawyers etc" (this contradicts the previous argument, but well).

"AI cannot invent anything original" (well, maybe - but neither can you).

"AI will take over the world and kill us all" (no, it is not).

"AI doesn't know what it's doing, doesn't have awareness and intentionality" (again: this contradicts the previous argument, but well - who cares about logical contradictions in an irrational post-rationalization).

The key reason for this hate: the same as ever: fear of the new. Fear of technology. Fear of change.

Geniuses like Asimov, or Frank Herbert, forecasted this. They looked at history and arrived at the same conclusion: people hate change.

Asimov wrote about the C/Fe (carbon/iron) culture: impact of robots, rejection and hate of robots, good robots vs. bad robots, adaptation to C/Fe, changes in industry, economy, legislation; moral and ethical impact. 

So here we are. We will set barriers, impose legislation, block datacenters, and we'll set robots on fire.

And in the end, we will create the best brave new world.

Because AI is here to stay, and will change this world.