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Jun 11, 2026
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The Dark Side of AI Absolutism: Why the Apocalyptic Future We're Being Sold Isn't Inevitable

AI Summary
The article discusses the conflicting views on artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential impact on the future. While some see AI as a transformative technology that will revolutionize industries, others warn of an apocalyptic future where AI replaces human workers. The article argues that this absolutist view of AI is not inevitable and that there are alternative perspectives on how AI can be used.

The Lead

Everything we hear about artificial intelligence is conflicting, and hearing about it feels inescapable. AI is terrible. AI is wonderful. It will break the world. It will transform the future. It’s essential to embrace it. It’s a moral imperative to abstain from using it.

The Event Details

Already, AI is projected to generate nearly unfathomable amounts of revenue. In the last quarter of 2025, it represented nearly 60% of the growth in the US economy. Since ChatGPT, the first of the large language models, was released in late 2022, more than half a million workers in the tech industry alone have lost their jobs.

The Data Analysis

AI’s dominance is inevitable. Get on board or you will be left behind. The robber barons of our age stand to profit wildly from not only enthusiasm about their star product, but also, the terror of it. “If you want to justify this enormous valuation in your IPO, you need to point to the revenue stream that you’re going to generate in the future,” said Suresh Naidu, a professor at Columbia University’s department of economics.

The Impact Analysis

This isn’t an argument for an abstinence-only relationship with AI, something that has too much in common with evangelical Christianity’s unrealistic stance on premarital sex. Anyone with common sense can see how those kinds of ascetic codes play out in reality. It’s happening already with AI. “AI is just another technology Americans don’t like but can’t stop using,” the Washington Post’s Shira Ovide wrote earlier this year, referring to the polarized divide between polling that shows how much they distrust the tech and numbers of rapid user growth in the past year.

The Prediction

“Where I think we have to get to is, there can be alternatives,” said Dash. “What we can imagine is, rather than the ChatGPT killer, a lot of different little AIs from little responsible players.” A few are already quietly cropping up, harkening back to earlier and more optimistic days in the internet’s history, and offering a glimpse of what could be possible if people took AI into their own hands.