Some ramblings about mainstream AI "criticism"

Some people really like to gatekeep shit, especially on the internet. There can be valid reasons for gatekeeping (I don't think it can even be considered gatekeeping if that's the case), like preservation and the prevention of exploitation and/or appropriation of culture (ex. Indigenous Americans advising non-Indigenous people to not use white sage), or putting standards to be part of a movement that needs them (ex. punk and goth are heavily political, specifically leftist, subcultures, and many people of those subcultures call out on "apolitical" or right-wing people trying to be part of it). From what I have observed, gatekeeping is usually done in fandoms (that are smaller and more obscure) in order to protect its health, linked to the latter valid reason for gatekeeping I mentioned. "The fandom has to stay niche or toxic people will find and infiltrate it and there'll be continuous drama and infighting." Something like that.

Some peole, more accurately groups of people, like to pretend that they're a rarer kind of people, more "exclusive," more "niche," while they're (I don't like using this word but seems like it's a word that really fits) basic. But they refuse to admit that, because they gotta be some kind of special. TESCREALs are one of those said groups of people. They think they're oh so smart and special and there's few people who are aware of the """existential risks of AI""" or whatever the fuck they're fixated over, while it's the most common ball AI criticism (if you can even consider it that) out there. Mainstream media is full of TESCREALslop. Billionaires paddle that ideology time and time again. Famous researchers (?) also paddle that ideology frequently. Powerful companies do that too. You fuckers got all the money and powerful people and you're still pretending to be niche. NAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. YOU EVEN GOT EPSTEIN ON YOUR SIDE, STOP LARPING (or posing, I heard that it's a better term for this). Shut the FUCK up.

The Critical AI community would do so much for that level of popularity and mainstream embracement, but since it's a, dare I say, a group of ideas and studies very, VERY inconvenient to billionaires, they often get pushed to the margins. They got a lot of power under the current system that is capitalism, after all, so they can push forward what they want to see and happen, and omit and hide what they don't want. That's why TESCREALslop is veeeery popular in mainstream media. I made a "The people and media of modern AI criticism, ethics, Critical AI, etc." iceberg chart, and I couldn't help but notice that the upper levels of the iceberg chart mostly have entries related to TESCREALism and existential risk stuff, and that Critical AI-related entries are mostly in lower levels.

Here are more examples: I've seen a lot of buzz around If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies in mainstream media, but the same hype wasn't really around for The AI Con. The AI Con, however, found quite a lot of love from the alternate. The people and work of the Distributed AI Research Center (DAIR) is generally more niche compared to TESCREALslop in general because while the indies all know and love them, the mainstream just... avoids them. Two AI documentaries showed at Sundance Film Festival 2026 that were quite different from each other: "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist," directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, and "Ghost in the Machine," directed by Valerie Veatch. The former, in a true "centrist," "apolitical" fashion, tries to make itself appear "unbiased" while pandering to tech company CEOs. It might not appear so in the surface, but scratch it a little and you will realize. The fact that the PR teams of said tech companies are said to have liked the documentary (Is it even a goddamn documentary if it's just, I don't fucking know how to exactly describe it, centristslop? Man I need to cut down on my usage of the -slop suffix. Is it even a documentary if it's just... lying?) only adds insult to injury. "Ghost in the Machine" however doesn't worry about pandering to them. And guess which documentary is easily available on Netflix and which one is more "obscure," people wanting to watch it having to rent it from a site named Kinema or go to a screening (which are quite rare but also quite fun from what I saw). Yeah.

That doesn't mean that the Critical AI community hasn't attempted to push into the mainstream at all. It isn't the sort of community that gatekeeps (the most they do is refusing to have TESCREALs by their side, which fits into the second justifiable gatekeeping reason I mentioned in the beginning) or wants to stay niche forever. It's important that we get our voices heard, because, like, are we REALLY going to leave the playing field to the TESCREALs and the Diddybluds? NO, NOT AT ALL! Are we going to work so more and more people know about the truth? YES!! We're going to host more Ghost in the Machine screenings, more of us will be going on their countries' parliament, more of us will host book signings and meet-ups and protests. And if you're concerned about the community becoming toxic as it becomes more popular, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT. We got SO MUCH on the line, and besides, that's what community standards are for! Hang those posters around your university, AND call out the grifters and the bigots and the bullies trying to ride the wave. And no, doing so is not unjustifiable. You aren't a CIA plant or a psyop tool or an infighter for doing it (to be honest, those who say that calling out problematic behavior is so are probably the actual CIA plants). Keep going, and have fun!! And Eid Mubarek!

EDIT - MAY 27, 2026: Number 1, I deleted the first "different" in that sentence about the AI documentaries at Sundance as it was redundant. Number 2, Valerie Veatch, the director of Ghost in the Machine, DM'd me and told me that the distribution rights of the documentary were bought by ITVS (from what I understood, they're a distribution firm associated with PBS that specializes in documentaries? Not very sure) and it is releasing on PBS this September! Oh and the documentary's on tour too and it's going to last until then. That is some CRAZY breakthrough into the mainstream, congratulations!! (No wonder why billionaires in the United States are seeking to defund public media...) Thank you for letting me know, Valerie Veatch!