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  • Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)emilymbender@dair-community.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 1:28 PM

    One of the key messages I carry is that we don't have to accept any of this. Sometimes I see opposition in the form of "Get in loser, you'll be left behind" and other times it's in the form of "It's all over the place, what do you mean you think you can opt out?"

    [Note to the mansplainers of Mastodon: This is a thread, meaning you should read the whole thing and then even still think twice before replying.]

    >>

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Replies

  • Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)emilymbender@dair-community.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 1:29 PM

    To the first, I say: Fine, I don't want to go where that bandwagon is headed.

    "Left behind" is an interesting phrase, it indexes a notion of a race towards a desirable/shining "future" that only some can access, and which we should all hope to participate in.

    But the TESCREAList/tech bro future is not one I want any part in and in fact one that I actively resist --- and I hope others will too.

    >>

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  • Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)emilymbender@dair-community.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 1:29 PM

    To the second, I say not accepting it isn't the same as denying that people are using the janky tech sold as "AI", some by choice, others because it is forced on them in their job.

    Not accepting it means not normalizing it, refusing everywhere I can refuse, pushing for holding the companies producing this accountable with existing & new regulation, working to protect the environment & important social infrastruture.

    >>

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  • Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)emilymbender@dair-community.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 1:29 PM

    "It's already here, what do you mean you think you can refuse?" is just another variation of the agency-stealing inevitability narrative. The future is not yet written, and we can shape it, starting with rejecting inevitability and claiming our agency.

    /fin

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  • econadseconads@mendeddrum.org
    Oct 14, 2026, 5:18 AM

    @Em0nM4stodon @emilymbender

    I would add to that, don't feel guilty about giving fake information if there's no way to get what you want without it. Them not giving you a choice removes your obligation to deal honestly in return.

    I've got a friend who's very against ad blockers because it removes the funding stream for that site, but my response is that if they would use ads tailored to the article subject instead of the reader ad blockers wouldn't work, the site would load faster and the ads would be just as if not more effective. So that is a choice the website made, and I'm making the choice to ignore their choice.

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  • deechdeech@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 2:50 PM

    @emilymbender At the moment we are forced to use it on the job so it has an authoritarian inevitability but not a technical one.

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  • Ben Hammondbenh@mastodon.scot
    Oct 13, 2026, 3:59 PM

    @emilymbender

    I think they are hoping to make the world's knowledge so turgid and unreadable that the only way to get any work done is to use their AI analysis.

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  • Adrian Wadrianww@mastodon.scot
    Oct 13, 2026, 7:59 PM

    @benh Which will also be turgid and unreadable, but also likely to be wrong in subtle (or even not-so-subtle) ways.

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  • Wesley Cook ⚡🚲wesley@theatl.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 1:33 AM

    @benh I do have to wonder if this isn't their plan for software. Code quality is out the window now. No one cares if the codebase is a mess cause "whatever, Claude will be able to maintain it". Meanwhile the org is trying to crack down on token costs while simultaneously mandating we use it to write our code.

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  • s427s427@lou.lt
    Oct 13, 2026, 4:27 PM

    @emilymbender Agreed. Also, one of the main characteristic about this tech is how it's supposed to simplify everything: you don't need to know how to code/write/draw etc, you just write a prompt. This is one of its main selling point. So, *if* we really get to a point where it becomes "inevitable", at least it will be easy to catch up. No point in hurrying up now.

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  • hiiamfrompolandhiiamfrompoland@troet.cafe
    Oct 13, 2026, 5:37 PM

    @s427 @emilymbender exactly - there is no learning curve - I can jump on it at any time and be exactly where anyone else is - as long as I am able to express myself coherently and in detail.

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  • Rupert V/rupert@mastodon.nz
    Oct 13, 2026, 7:25 PM

    @s427 @emilymbender I'm pretty sure it's at least a year since I was first told I'd be "unemployable in a year" if I didn't join the cult. Now I just walk around the office smiling gnomishly at people who are costing the company twice as much as they were last year and still not outperforming me.

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  • elleelle@weathered-steel.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 4:31 PM

    @emilymbender if you use a computer, it is very likely one is at least using the product of one of the stochastic extrusion machines.

    I'm with you. wherever I can, I resist.

    in circles I frequent, an increasing prevalence of "ethical" / "solidarity" "AI". inevitably, looking into 2nd- and 3rd-level funders/participants are tied to the big bads in the industry. it's open/ethical-washing a fundamentally fascist tech tree.

    trying to keep an open mind, hopefully my brain doesn't fall out

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  • RRBrrb@infosec.exchange
    Oct 13, 2026, 4:51 PM

    @emilymbender Same people using the same rhetoric they used to sell NFTs. Remember that. And remember how foolish the people look now who invested money in Bored Apes.

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  • patterpatterfloof@meow.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 5:48 PM

    @emilymbender I can't help what's pre-installed on my computer & can't control how companies are processing my data, but I can decide to not knowingly invoke an AI myself

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  • C.Suthorn :prn:Life_is@no-pony.farm
    Oct 18, 2026, 7:12 AM

    @jens @emilymbender

    My mother (and all of my family, except my father who was active in a union and is dead, probably because of being frustrated about the family he married into) are jumping off the bridge, because everybody (seems to) do it. They want me to do too. Resisting means to me, resisting my own family.

    And i have a feeling, that most people are just like my family.

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  • Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSCLordCaramac@discordian.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 8:12 PM

    @emilymbender @bwana I think machine learning and the tools we can build with it are something that should be in the hands and under the direct control of everyone who wants to use them. We cannot allow a bunch of corporations to monopolise the technology. We need to stop the hyperscalers from buying up all the hardware and driving computer prices through the roof for everybody. There is a lot of open source AI software that runs locally on a regular PC, no Internet connection needed, no computing centre needed, but it does need decent GPUs and enough RAM, and those things are hard to obtain and cost an arm and a leg, no thanks to those hyperscalers.

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  • Giuseppe Acetogiuseppe_aceto@scholar.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 10:14 PM

    @LordCaramac @bwana there's also the issue of how foundation models have been built, even the open-weights ones: the kind of hidden low-pay and psychologically damaging labour for censoring, and how the needed datasets have been collected in unclear or admittedly illegal ways. I would like to have an ethical assessment of professional (and even more, publicly funded) usage of such services and products, even before the legal assessment (see cloning the UX) settles down.

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  • D. G. Marshalldavidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 8:03 PM

    @mishandlingboners @emilymbender

    The tech bros are claiming their stochastic parrots are conscious.

    If that was true, then using "A.I." is participating in slavery.

    I will claim legal, religious and moral exemptions from participating in a slavery industry founded on piracy.

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  • Matthewpicard@mas.to
    Oct 14, 2026, 10:29 AM

    @emilymbender thank you for all the work you do on this. being so vocal in saying no and showing that we can do the same in our own small parts of the world.

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  • ::ᏒⴹᎢꓰＣ𐋏R_3_T_3_C_H@defcon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 4:22 PM

    @akamran @MedeaVanamonde @emilymbender Thought the exact same.

    Fear sells. Doomsday sells more. There is no quicker way to get people on a bandwagon than to chase them and proffer the only means of escape to get away. (both perceived, not real) Fear is primordial and shuts down critical conscious thought. They need that to get people to run.

    Luckily, for them, there is a lot of shit to be scared of, climate, pollution, drought, infrastructure, political schisms. Keep people too busy and tired to investigate these things; keep them unable to measure scope and contextualise, keep them unable to understand depth and repercussion... just get them to jump and react. The good thing, for them again, is that once on a path, humans are reticent to change. Groupthink, sunk cost, reinforced fear... those sheep follow quickly to the waiting gate.

    The herd wants to reinforce their "correct" decision so they too join in the narrative of "don't get left behind."

    “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
    -Joshua/WOPR, WarGames

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  • Fzm@kolektiva.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 5:02 PM

    @MedeaVanamonde @emilymbender

    Yeah, it's like the Christian telling of the rapture where if you aren't "saved by God" you'll get Left Behind. Of course AI to them is literally God so that tracks

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  • Savetoleen🍉😪savetoleen@mstdn.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 10:38 PM

    @emilymbender Winter has arrived in Gaza. We urgently need warm clothes, blankets, and tarpaulins to protect us from the cold and rain. 💔🥶👕🧣☂️

    Any donation or share can make a difference. 🙏❤️ please please 😔 🙏 help me 📎 the link in the bio

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  • zygmydzygmyd@toot.cat
    Oct 16, 2026, 9:26 PM

    @emilymbender

    I think I've been having an industry specific emotion in response to the phrase "left behind". My interpretation has been that it's less a generic term of a bright future than the accusation that I will be unemployable in a few years without getting on the latest tech bandwagon. My emotion is somewhere in between "this again" and "you again" (at the people saying this).

    In explanation for thread readers, industry tooling changes every few years. We've gone from single servers manually managed through automated configuration management, cloud computing, kubernetes, serverless, buzzwords ad nauseam. Hiring for non-programming tech positions is very often done based on whether the interviewee has used the specific tool in question. (On the job training in new tools is effectively non-existent.) In that light, the phrase means that if I don't jump on the latest bandwagon, including AI, I will find myself out of a job and unhirable.

    I don't think that's actually true given the real life capabilities of AI tooling. However it does link what I was told years ago, that I will be automated out of a job, with what I am now being told, that I will be left behind. The same connotation that I have to respect the people saying it and acquiesce to their desires and plans permeates both conversations. Not to mention the cloying need of the person saying this.

    In context, my job classification is systems administrator (current job title is DevSecOps Specialist) rather than programmer, so it's not like all this AI stuff is 100% aimed at me, but it's still there like some desperate person asking for groundless respect.

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  • Count HoldemCountHoldem@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 2:02 PM

    @emilymbender If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Survival of the fittest. Etc., etc..

    How many platitudes between The Big Bang and The Big Crunch?.. but the priority of these differentials, applied eloquently... ... ...

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  • WombatDhampirVampirePenguin@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 2:09 PM

    @emilymbender I'm even second guessing my participation with the Internet, especially the phone thing. I miss when tech was exciting and fun rather than a tube for the rich to steal everything, including our relationships, thoughts and joy.

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  • Dźwiedziudzwiedziu@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 2:18 PM

    @emilymbender
    > "Get in loser, you'll be left behind"

    Today I answered such “wisdom” with “then why you won't leave us alone with a habitable planet?”

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  • George Bgbargoud@masto.nyc
    Oct 13, 2026, 2:32 PM

    @emilymbender

    It's nice seeing threads like this when there seems to be an overwhelming effort into gaslighting us into thinking we're crazy for not wanting it.

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  • Wyldwitchwyld@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 4:42 PM

    @emilymbender I'd recommend listening to the mirror mirror episode of cozys casts

    <title><![CDATA[mirror, mirror]]></title> <description><![CDATA[<p>PLEASE don&#39;t forget how special you are &lt;3</p> ]]></description> <link>podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sho</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">f5b79bae-c00b-4661-94d6-a3b51f3a8a0d</guid> url="anchor.fm/s/1001eea14/podcast/
    <itunes: href="d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/>

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  • Katharina Buholzerkatharina_buholzer@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 5:14 PM

    @emilymbender Re: Mastodon:

    I am amazed that you have the patience to interact on this buggy platform.

    Otherwise I agree with what you communicate in your thread.

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  • disorderlyfdisorderlyf@todon.eu
    Oct 13, 2026, 5:51 PM

    @emilymbender I didn't intend to mansplain this, but I appreciate stating from go this is a thread.

    As far as the whole thing, I keep coming back to other technological paradigms and I don't recall the internet, smart phones, even social media being something so many people with so much contempt for it giving up and deciding they have to go along. I've never worked somewhere that would move my name way up the chopping block if layoffs happen because I didn't have a Facebook account or an iPhone or maybe even directly told me they would fire me if I didn't meet an internet usage quota at work. It became endemic at workplaces of mine years after it became endemic in personal settings.

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  • Bogdan Buduroiubudududuroiu@hachyderm.io
    Oct 13, 2026, 6:53 PM

    @emilymbender everyone's free to reject AI, many people reject technology altogether. Arguing that transformers aren't going to be ubiquitous is gonna require serious evidence, given they're mostly taking over as _the_ algorithm: weather prediction, crystalline structure discovery, etc.

    Regulation should prevent any actor unilaterally capturing the market, and protecting open weight development.

    Environment-wise, we should probably start with banning cattle farming and alfalfa production before we tackle AI.

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  • John Colagioiajcolag@mastodon.social
    Oct 13, 2026, 9:36 PM

    @emilymbender Funny how the people worried about inevitability don't save themselves a lot of effort by curling up and dying somewhere, since their deaths are surely even more inevitable.

    Reminds me of when people decry others as "unnatural." Oh, thanks for taking to the Internet, definitely a natural formation, to tell everyone that you (incorrectly) don't think that homosexuality (et al) occurs naturally and therefore should stop.

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  • WesDymwesdym@mastodon.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 11:01 AM

    @emilymbender I think that your more nuanced reality is clearer to those with enough life experience to have seen trends and fads rise and fall, new things become old, etc. It's very easy even for highly intelligent people to get swept up in the excitement of New Things, because the wisdom of perspective doesn't come from intellect but instead from observational experience. I think another significant element is FOMO, which everyone has to some degree. And again, experience mitigates that best.

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