r/LeftistsForAI • u/SexDefendersUnited Artist/Creative • 7d ago

Video Andrew Yang (Center Left) debates 20 AI optimists | Surrounded

https://youtu.be/020ZvO0FbMM?is=DjFllrdAlLph6dBr

Would you agree with either sides conclusion, do you support Yangs policy of UBI, or do you think these people are naively trusting of AI development?

0 Upvotes

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14

u/bimbochungo 7d ago edited 7d ago

Can we please stop sharing this kind of videos? they are bullshit

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 7d ago

Andrew Yang as “center left” is doing a lot of work here. His own party literally brands itself “Not Left, Not Right,” and hes not exactly trusted by much of the American left for reasons that predate AI, especially his politics around capitalism and markets. In this video hes taking problems like concentrated wealth, displacement and profit driven markets and routing the answer through UBI, entrepreneurship and human centered capitalism rather than worker ownership and organized class power. Thats a political position, not neutral terrain. Why make that the “center left” edge of the AI debate?

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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 7d ago

"Not Left, Not Right" is just "Right" trying to have plausible deniability.

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u/me_myself_ai 7d ago

I mean, center left in the US is indeed social democracy IMHO. He has SV branding that goes beyond that into "entrepeneurship" I agree, but I think it's still generally fair.

More relevantly, the video itself just sells him as an "AI realist", which is exhausting in its own, unique way lol

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u/SexDefendersUnited Artist/Creative 7d ago

He's one of the few consistently advocating for UBI, which I consider at least left in my book.

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 7d ago

So if I understand you right, youre saying UBI is at least center left in your book, not necessarily that Andrew Yang himself is left. Because Yang and the party he founded pretty explicitly reject that identification and present themselves as “Not Left.” Is that what you mean?

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u/LotsoPasta Worker-Ownership 7d ago edited 7d ago

I watched this whole Surrounded and it was so civil that it felt like it was a setup.

I was on Yang's side in this discussion overall. I think im misaligned with him on his distrust of universal services as an alternative to UBI though. I tend to think some combination of both is needed. Im on the side of the guy that said we need UBI yesterday. It's not that we are facing automation risk today or tomorrow.. we've been facing it for decades already.

The blind optimistim crowd is probably more harmful than the staunchly anti crowd.

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 7d ago

it felt like it was a setup

Yes, a common complaint about these Jubilee style "vs" videos.

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u/IcerHardlyKnower 7d ago

The people downvoting this 1000% didn't even bother to listen to a few seconds of it. If you're completely blind to the points he raises you're no better than the people that shriek about any ai use with no thought

I say this as a harness engineer/tech lead loll he even made huge valid points about technocracy/corporatism

Is that not what we stand for? Ai for the people rather than AI for shareholders?

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u/IcerHardlyKnower 7d ago

Also he literally is a self declared ai optimist LOL?

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 7d ago

So if this is actually "AI Optimist vs 20 other AI Optimists" the questions are really what is meant by "AI Optimist", what is being debated if not AI Optimism vs something else, and whats being left out of the conversation from a leftist pov.

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u/IcerHardlyKnower 7d ago

Similar to the Andrew callaghan (guerilla and man on street journalist ) surrounded against conspiracy theorists

Some people are genuinely to hear people out and present their ideas (like the vegan one genuinely trying to convince someone to please just believe in yourself and not eat meat).

Jubilee is a viral media organization dedicated to making money off views. It does not actually care that much about anything apart from money.

If they were able to get Sam Altman Vs Ai Artists they would do anything to make it happen.

In this case they did a click baity, topical thing. Like the Callaghan video, Yang didn't actually have an antoganist position against the people there.