A few people post anti-robot skits on social media, and all of a sudden, everybody has their wires in a tangle. It is not a crime for people to exert their frustrations with the rise of artificial intelligence and the integration of technology into every facet of their lives by making up fake, robot slurs. Being mad at something like this seems like something a gas-guzzling, number-crunching, tin-skinned clanker would do.
Generative AI is all the rage, with well over 100 million people using it. Additionally, the moratorium on state regulation of AI was removed back in July, giving large companies like Google and OpenAI free rein to experiment with AI; they are looking to make a great payout from doing just that. After all, AI is expected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, with its market size expected to grow 120% year-over-year.
To make matters worse, AI is expected to have devastating impacts on the job market. Already, 13.7% of workers in the U.S. have lost their jobs to AI-driven automation; yet, employers are still projected to cut 40% of their workforce so AI can automate tasks. By 2045, 50% of jobs could be automated.
It is fair for people to personify AI as a tangible entity spreading like mold through a loaf of bread. There is no getting rid of it once it appears, and with some of the richest companies having a vested interest in its growth, its expansion is inevitable. AI critics want nothing more than to stop it dead in its tracks, but are powerless to do so.
Instead of wallowing in their sorrows, those who are anti-AI have turned to comedic outlets for their frustrations. They perform skits where they use made-up slurs to berate robots with human intelligence. Copper-blooded, dirty data-mining, cog-sucking, sons-of-glitches cannot feel the hurt humans project onto them.
However, people take things too far when they make up robophobic slurs in the likeness of actual human beings who have been victims of systemic racism. For example, TikTok user Samuel Jacob, a white man, created skits acting as a police officer arresting robots he called “Rosa Sparks” and “George Droid.” Bigoted people who thinly veil their racism against real minorities are the worst thing to come out of this trend.
This trend and its jokes have provided people with a distraction and laughter amongst the troubling rise of technology. Laughter is known to relax muscles, release endorphins and boost the immune system by moving lymph fluids around the body; it has alleviated stress and discomfort for people around the world. Children laugh over 25 times more than adults do, but adults who are burdened with monthly bills, full-time work or school, child-rearing, home-making and maintaining relationships are the ones who need to lighten up the most.
If people laugh at the expense of gear-grinding, malware-munching, binary-brained rust buckets, then so be it.
