1 hour ago · 6 min read1165 words · Politics · hide

A week is a long time in AI boosterism, bubbles and so on...1. The people versus the ugly big boxesYou might have noticed there was some kind of election in the US. Voters treated the big greedy sheds that keep the chatbots running as a claim on power, water and the skyline, backed by billionaire money. Unsurprisingly to everyone except the billionaires, this did not end well for them.So now Elon and the gang are looking at the stars and wanting to move datacentres off the planet. I can't help but remember the Straylight Run, from Neuromancer. Once again, the super-rich techbros seem to be treating the Sprawl Trilogy as a handbook for future living, rather than a dystopia. 2. You don't like this plan? How about this other plan? Monkey tennis?Casey Newton argues the election has given Democrats a mandate against data centres, billionaire election-buying and AI accelerationism, but they risk repeating the social-media years: no coherent goal, no fallback when legislation stalls, and…

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