VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
As readers of the number of book reviews by Alex M and myself on AI may have noted, we have warned repeatedly about the danger posed by the technology billionaires such as Musk, Thiel and the others behind AI. Two new books shed more light on the danger these people pose to humanity.
Nerd Reich by Gil Duran and End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor both cover similar ground. These books should be read by anyone concerned about AI and the people behind it. Both books examine the lives and deranged beliefs of the tech titans and show how they are uniting with Trump and his MAGA movement, religious fundamentalists, and racists and nationalists to turn the US into a fascist state.
The tech billionaires have gained control of the US government for their own ends. Their millions of dollars in donations helped Trump to get elected. Many of their nominees now hold important positions in the government. Vice-President Vance, who was a protege of Thiel, is entirely their creature. Thiel’s money put Vance into the Senate, and Thiel’s influence with Trump got Vance nominated as Trump’s running mate despite Vance’s earlier opposition to Trump.
The tech lords are helping to destroy areas of the US government which are not necessary to their needs. Musk and his DOGE were part of this process. Meanwhile they milk billions of dollars out of government contracts, especially with the Defence Department. Trump looks after their interests by threatening to punish any government which tries to impose any controls on the operations of the tech companies in their countries.
The Nerd Reich examines various definitions of fascism and shows how Trump and the MAGA movement match all the defining characteristics of fascism. The techno-fascism espoused by the tech bosses brings fascism to the modern era in ways undreamed of by Mussolini and Hitler.
AI-based facial recognition, surveillance technology by Palantir and data harvesting by social media companies make it easy to track the movements of people, facilitating the arrest of alleged illegal immigrants by ICE. A constant stream of lies, misinformation and propaganda on the internet make it hard for people to distinguish the truth in any situation.
Spreading their style of fascism to other countries is also on their agenda. We have seen Musk intervene to influence elections in Hungary, Germany and England in support of extreme right-wing parties. Trump has helped to prop up the right-wing government of Argentina. In Australia, Hanson’s campaign style and policies take after Trump and MAGA.
What to do about this situation? Klein and Taylor point to the success of previous mass movements such as the movement for disarmament, as inspiration for a movement of people against the harm caused by AI. They say, “If generations before us managed to disarm these dangerous atomic missiles, then we can disarm the AI models designed to addict us and steal our jobs-as well as the robots designed to stalk and even kill people. And we have a duty to disarm the profit models that have turned into weapons waged on our capacity to self-govern.”
Duran urges a radical rethink of the governance of technology. He calls for a ban on crypto-currency, a break-up of the tech monopolies, and a reassertion of government power over the power claimed by the tech billionaires. Governments must take back the public responsibilities which they out-sourced to tech companies and impose much tighter regulation on AI. Duran says, “Today’s capitalists openly plot to destroy the planet and extinguish human life for the sake of endless quarterly growth. Global capitalism has become a dangerously outdated software system. We have the knowledge-and the technology to try something new.”
While these are reasonable suggestions for dealing with some of the concerns these authors have with the tech fascists, they fall short of supplying the real solution to the nightmare of End Times Fascism; namely a socialist revolution.