Weeks ago, an article written by Sebastian T. Blackwood was published in the Maine Campus arguing the merits of the proposed per-credit artificial intelligence program. I oppose many of his arguments.
Arguing that University sponsored AI will improve “human capital,” is a ridiculous take. Students are not cattle. We are not machines whose efficiency is to be maximized. We are learners, and we are here to learn. By increasing our efficiency with AI we inevitably take detrimental short cuts in our learning. Part of learning is inefficiency. Mistakes are important, synthesizing sources ourselves is important, taking our time on work is important. Aiming to maximize human efficiency is exactly the kind of extractive rhetoric that AI companies hope you will listen to. It means that you’re more likely to support their destructive extraction from land and peoples, and it harms your development as a student too.
This is exactly the tact that Blackwood takes; his most harmful rhetoric is a description of technological progress and environmental protection. Blackwood feels that unchecked technological expansion is acceptable because it will invigorate the development of supporting infrastructure. This justification is a classic mistake, and will lead to irreversible harm to the Earth. For centuries the world has made technological leaps that caused irreversible, but initially undetectable harm to our world. For an example, look at the extensive nation-wide application of DDT. Initially heralded as a “benefactor of all humanity,” DDT was soon discovered to accumulate in human fatty tissues, soil and plant matter, eventually bioaccumulating to toxic levels for humans and animals. We could have prevented threatening the next generation of humans, birds and insects had we considered the impacts of DDT before we commercialized it. Instead we made it available to households, businesses and the military. It was sprayed over suburban lawns, battlefields, folks were even confident enough to ingest it. We fooled ourselves into loving DDT, and we are fooling ourselves into loving AI.
DDT is not the only example. Humanity follows a pattern of overinvestment into undersupported, under-researched and harmful technologies. Look at the industrial mercury in the penobscot river, the bioaccumulation of lead in the environment, even the ongoing industrial climate crisis. Each of these crises began with new technologies that had hopeful results for humanity. Now, we are still fixing their devastatingly long-lasting effects: the land will never be the same. For each of these impacts we could have taken a step back, critically considered our effect and planned ahead to curb our destructive tendency.
My opinion is that the past century of technological progression has left infrastructural and social technologies by the way side. The demands of high science now ply roughly at the fabric of our land and culture. The AI boom has demanded worldwide infrastructural capacity to scramble to keep up. At first, data centers were built thoughtfully, in areas that could support their resource demand and effects on the land. As the boom grew, the scramble quickened, and data centers were built less thoughtfully, in historically marginalized areas or in areas that are not fit to support their demand. Data centers steal land from those whose land has been threatened for centuries, and truck water from miles away.
Blackwood argues that “the answer to environmental concerns is … to make sure the systems powering it become cleaner over time.” The answer to environmental concerns is to regulate AI, take a step back and make thoughtful decisions.
Rather than rollover for AI company agendas, students must take a strong stance for themselves, their friends, their global family, their marginalized siblings, and their land. Blackwood’s rhetoric cannot be the sole representation of the University of Maine’s opinion on the per-credit AI fee, so here is mine. I encourage you to think critically about how the AI boom will affect the community around you. I encourage you to speak to those around you. And I encourage you to develop your own opinion on the matter, but don’t forget that we all have to live on Earth until we die.
