Concentrated Power, Surveillance, and AI: How to Build a Liveable Future While Fighting the Hype

Large tech corporations are leaning on AI to solidify their market positions. Their massive data—gathered and scraped via surveillance practices—and significant quantities of scarce compute infrastructures mean that only a few actors—the big tech giants based in the US and China—have the resources, economies of scale, and market access required to create, deploy, and profit from large scale AI systems. All others are swimming against the current. Happily, it doesn’t have to be this way. Here we explore how alternative models, small AI projects, and collaborative initiatives are crucial to a livable and equitable future. And why we won’t be able to create this future without firm pushback against the current US-centric Big Tech AI model.