{"id":15204,"date":"2026-10-17T14:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/?p=15146"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T18:35:02","slug":"in-the-crosshairs-of-ai-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test01\/2026\/10\/in-the-crosshairs-of-ai-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"In the crosshairs of AI (part three)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>n their mad rush for profit and power, the tech oligarchs have unleashed artificial intelligence (AI) into nearly every corner of life on this planet. Firms are investing billions in data centers, which house the infrastructure to process the enormous amounts of information that power AI. They are also plowing ever more money into research and development. Their hope is that the technology will overcome global capitalism\u2019s slump<\/a>, which the system has been trapped in since the Great Recession, and trigger a new epoch of expansion. States are incorporating it into their police forces for domestic surveillance as well as their militaries for cyberwarfare and high-tech weapons. Ominously, the struggle for AI supremacy is now at the center of the imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n

The widespread, unregulated use of AI is already having devastating impacts on our environment, jobs, and rights. Some worry that it threatens our very species with extinction<\/a>. In this three-part interview, Tempest Collective\u2019s Ashley Smith asks two advanced tech workers, Josh and Yasmine, about the technology, its much hyped promise and threat, and its impact on our lives. Most importantly, they lay out how the Left and labor movement should respond and what we should demand and fight for.<\/p>\n

Read parts one<\/a> and two<\/a> here.<\/em><\/p>\n

Part Three: What is To Be Done?<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ashley Smith:<\/span> AI has led to a substantial debate on the Left. Many downplay its significance, contending that its nature and impact is vastly exaggerated. Others claim the exact opposite about AI, adopting the doom-speak of its boosters that use such talk to drive up their stock valuations and fuel the bubble. What\u2019s your assessment of the various positions in this debate? What position do you think we should adopt?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Josh:<\/span> I think I have outlined some of the debates on the Left, but before I go further, I want to state a few points of agreement. The Left is united in fighting for democratic control over our lives, work, and environment. This process involves struggles that can emerge outside what the Left itself initiates. For instance, the large movement against building new data centers was not sparked by organizations on the Left. But we still need to play an active part in it.<\/p>\n

Even if I believe some claims about the use value of AI in helping us make medical breakthroughs are likely true, I don’t think that should be seen as contradicting the anti-data center movement. Like the fight for democracy in decision-making in tech workspaces, this is a fight for working people having a direct say in how we govern our lives. If we’re going to make AI breakthroughs, that’s more likely if we have that control and can direct how we use our resources.<\/p>\n

The main disagreement I\u2019ve outlined is about AI’s capabilities and potential. With regard to understanding the impact on jobs and imperialism, I think it is important, but even if we come to an agreement it does not automatically lead to unified conclusions. As I have stated, I don’t feel confident making any predictions.<\/p>\n

Other disagreements among those on the Left include the debate between those who think we should abolish AI and those who think we should take it under our control. In some ways, those are not mutually exclusive. To do either means we need the power to make that choice! And I hope that through struggle we can get there and continue to have that debate on the way.<\/p>\n

Finally, I think a big schism exists between the campists and the internationalist Left. The campists see any states that oppose, or are targets of, US imperialism as allies worthy of support. Internationalists believe that while we should primarily focus on opposing our own imperialist states as our enemies, we look to the international working class, including those exploited and oppressed by their lesser imperialist powers, as the main force capable of overthrowing capitalism and ending imperialism.<\/p>\n

These positions lead to vastly different outlooks on states worldwide and their use of AI. While campists ignore or excuse the states they support in weaponizing AI against their own people, internationalists oppose such practices. We oppose the use of AI as a tool for state repression by any state. And we build international solidarity against it.<\/p>\n

AS:<\/span> Finally, many politicians are now calling for the regulation of AI. What do you make of their particular proposals? How should the Left and labor movement respond? What should we be demanding?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yasmine:<\/span> Bernie Sanders has proposed legislation to \u201cban super intelligence,\u201d whatever that means. He, along with others, has also proposed creating oversight bodies, auditing frameworks, a kill-switch requirement, and so on. In general, I think we can benefit from any additional regulation and transparency.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re woefully inadequate and don\u2019t even attempt to address the actual harms already happening. Senators Jayapal, Representative Tlaib, and others introduced legislation to ban the use of facial recognition and biometrics by ICE. The Take It Down law passed last year requires platforms to take down nonconsensual AI-generated sexual content. These restrictions are worth supporting, and we should rally behind them. That said, we shouldn\u2019t limit our sights to such limited reforms.<\/p>\n

The organized Left should develop a holistic perspective regarding this tech, and our demands should reflect that. We must recognize that the tech oligarchs are trying to hardwire AI into nearly every aspect of our lives.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in the midst of its construction\u2014the data centers, the power and water infrastructure (mostly non-renewable) being set up to serve them, the camera and license plate readers being installed on every corner of our cities, the technical infrastructure being set up to enable different policing agencies to share and combine surveillance data and apply LLM analysis to it, the big tech AI contracts with public schools and with universities, and the systematic forced integration of AI in our day-to-day work tasks.<\/p>\n

These are all the ways big tech is attempting to entrench this technology (built only to serve its interests) in our society. Our goal should be to halt this construction and to dismantle what has already been built. And to envision a different kind of future, one that isn’t the one the tech billionaires are trying to make inevitable.<\/p>\n

The grassroots organizing against data centers has been remarkably successful and has won moratoriums on new data center construction around the country. We should be part of that effort, and we should push to make those moratoriums permanent. We should support legislation that seeks to place limits on AI use in the military or by ICE or cops, but we should demand that these limits turn into full bans and that they\u2019re generalized to all uses, not to a subset of functions. I.e., a ban on autonomous weapons isn\u2019t enough while AI continues to be used for surveillance and \u201ctarget\u201d generation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll add to the demand already raised by folks like No Azure for Apartheid, calling for the tech executives who have profiteered from genocide and mass murder to be held accountable and tried for their crimes against humanity. It\u2019s an indisputable fact that tech infrastructure knowingly provided by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Palantir, and others has been essential to the implementation of genocide and apartheid in Palestine.<\/p>\n

We should also take an internationalist perspective and oppose economic and political imperialism that enables the violent harvesting of precious minerals, a violence both the US and China are engaged in. We should demand an end to the exploitation of people in the Global South and their lands for rare earth minerals, and we should be demanding that the companies who have profited from that exploitation compensate affected communities for the resulting health and environmental damage.<\/p>\n

We should be clear about the fact that AI surveillance is no less dystopian and anti-working class when it\u2019s wielded by the Chinese state than when it\u2019s used here in the US. The carbon emissions from coal-powered data centers in China are as much a threat to our planet\u2019s survival as the gas emissions here.<\/p>\n

The sometimes eager adoption of AI reflects how resource-poor and desperate for some sort of edge so many institutions are. We should be demanding that public school systems pay their teachers, give them decent benefits, and hire more of them before they spend money on AI service contracts with Microsoft, Anthropic, or whoever. Same for universities. We should reject the attempt to use AI to compensate for healthcare providers’ lack of time and resources, and call for health care expansion and for Medicare for all. For god\u2019s sake, I already spent only 10 minutes with my primary care physician, and now 5 of them are being spent on her asking the AI prompt how to diagnose my symptoms.<\/p>\n

When we talk about data centers, we should recognize that the communities chosen for construction are typically rural and generally underserved and underfunded. Wherever workers have become dependent on data center construction jobs (however temporarily), we should call for a just transition, substantial severance pay, and long-term benefits. Better yet, we should campaign for infrastructure spending on things that will actually benefit these communities: public transit, renewable energy, climate resilience, and much more.<\/p>\n

I understand that might sound like a fantasy to some, but let\u2019s remember that in these same communities, everyday people got together and pushed back against the world\u2019s most powerful companies along with their own local governments. I think they can win more, and I think this is the perfect opportunity for us to reimagine what we spend our resources and labor on and what we choose to build in our communities. I also think this is the best way to undercut the tech lobby\u2019s jobs pitch and win folks like builders and electricians to our side.<\/p>\n

As a tech worker, the long-term vision I organize for is democratic worker power. In some ways, everyone has a stake in tech worker organizing, because no other group of people has potential leverage over these companies and technology like the people who build and maintain it. And when the bubble bursts, bail out the people, not the tech oligarchs.<\/p>\n