[andsoitis]

> Something seems to be lost on my peers today: it’s still easy to not use AI. The food we eat, clothes we wear, and every electronic device we touch may embody innumerable injuries to the world, and all this is inescapable. Eschewing AI is one thing that we can actually do to live out ethics that affirm values of human and environmental rights.

I disagree. Giving yourself a pass on decisions around food, clothing, and electronic devices as if you cannot choose to have minimal social and environmental impact in those domains is completely false. I would venture as far as to say as getting on your high horse w.r.t. AI but not be simultaneously (self-)critical in these other areas doesn't endear me to the author's overarching narrative.

[NoraCodes]

I think TFA's point is that one cannot completely abstain from food or clothes (or, in many places, at least some tech) without suffering very severe consequences, so it is unreasonable to expect this behavior. Not so AI, at least for most people.

[budsniffer952]

There is so much daylight between "completely abstain" and making better choices, even if those choices are painful. I can assure you the author uses an expensive phone, and shops at the same clothing stores we do. By shear coincidence, the thing he doesn't want to use is the easy choice.

[NoraCodes]

TFA does not say that it is impossible to make better choices, but also, you cannot "better choices" yourself out of complicity with poor labor practices in colonized nations or environmental damage from farms and oil; not entirely.

[andsoitis]

Your sentence doesn’t parse. Can you reword?

[NoraCodes]

Sure! I agree with the comment's point as I understand it, but I don't think that point is counter to what the linked article means to convey. I think the article's intended point is that, for most people in rich countries, reducing the amount of harm they are complicit in by doing basic life functions (eating, seeking shelter, clothing themselves) is pretty hard and has significant diminishing returns on increasing effort. Choosing not to use AI is easier, almost trivial for most people, and therefore should be an obvious choice.