"Nobody Asked for A.I." Is a Stupid Argument

With lots of competition, the argument that "nobody asked for AI" is probably the dumbest idea being talked about right now.Doctorow talks about it a lot, as if some douchey rich guys made up this giant lie and are selling it to everyone who doesn't want it.It's fucking ridiculous. But let me describe why.Nobody asks for anything. We don't ask for inventions.We didn't ask for penicillin. Or cars. Or electricity. Candles and horses and hospitals were working just fine before that.The general population never said, "Hey, wouldn't it be awesome if we could just inject some shit and it would cure tons of bacterial infections?"Nobody also said, "We should have wires running in everything with alternating current so we don't need so many candles."People don't ask for things in the form of solutions.So, no. They didn't ask for AI.But what they DID do is complain about their soul-crushing knowledge work jobs for decades upon decades.We DID complain that working for giant corporations doing…