Thanks for writing this; I’ve thought about this before, it seems like an under-explored (or under-exploited?) idea.
Another point: even if ML engineers, software devs etc either could not be persuaded to unionize, or would accelerate AI development if they could, maybe other labour unions could still exert pressure. E.g., workers in the compute or hardware supply chain; HR, cleaners, ops, and other non-technical staff who work at AI companies? Perhaps strong labour unions in sectors that are NOT obviously related to AI could be powerful here, e.g. by consumer boycotts (e.g., what if education union members committed to not spending money on AI products unless and until the companies producing them complied with certain safety measures?)
Some recent polls suggest that the idea of slowing down AI is already popular among US citizens (72% want to slow it down). My loose impressions are also that (i) most union members and organizers are on the political left (ii) many on the left are already sceptical about AI, for reasons related to (un)employment, plagiarism (i.e. critics of art AI’s use of existing art), capitalism (tech too controlled by powerful interests), algorithmic bias. So this might not be an impossible sell, if AI safety advocates communicate about it in the right way.
To your first para—yes I wonder how unionised countries and relevant sectors are in bottlenecks in the compute supply chain—Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan. I don’t know enough about the efficacy of boycotts to comment on the union led boycotts idea.
I’ve raised this in response to another comment but I want to also address here the concern that workers who join a union would organise to accelerate the development of AI. I think that is very unlikely—the history of unions is a strong tradition of safety, slowing down or stopping work. I do not know an example of a union that has instead prioritised acceleration but there’s probably some and it would get grey as you move into the workers self-management space.
Yeah I don’t have a strong opinion about whether they would accelerate it—I was just saying, even if some workers would support acceleration, other workers could work to slow it down.
One reason that developers might oppose slowing down AI is that it would put them out of work, wouldn’t it? (Or threaten to). So if someone is not convinced that AI poses a big risk, or thinks that pausing isn’t the best way to address the risk, then lobbying to slow down AI development would be a big cost for no obvious benefit.
Thanks for writing this; I’ve thought about this before, it seems like an under-explored (or under-exploited?) idea.
Another point: even if ML engineers, software devs etc either could not be persuaded to unionize, or would accelerate AI development if they could, maybe other labour unions could still exert pressure. E.g., workers in the compute or hardware supply chain; HR, cleaners, ops, and other non-technical staff who work at AI companies? Perhaps strong labour unions in sectors that are NOT obviously related to AI could be powerful here, e.g. by consumer boycotts (e.g., what if education union members committed to not spending money on AI products unless and until the companies producing them complied with certain safety measures?)
Some recent polls suggest that the idea of slowing down AI is already popular among US citizens (72% want to slow it down). My loose impressions are also that (i) most union members and organizers are on the political left (ii) many on the left are already sceptical about AI, for reasons related to (un)employment, plagiarism (i.e. critics of art AI’s use of existing art), capitalism (tech too controlled by powerful interests), algorithmic bias. So this might not be an impossible sell, if AI safety advocates communicate about it in the right way.
To your first para—yes I wonder how unionised countries and relevant sectors are in bottlenecks in the compute supply chain—Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan. I don’t know enough about the efficacy of boycotts to comment on the union led boycotts idea.
I’ve raised this in response to another comment but I want to also address here the concern that workers who join a union would organise to accelerate the development of AI. I think that is very unlikely—the history of unions is a strong tradition of safety, slowing down or stopping work. I do not know an example of a union that has instead prioritised acceleration but there’s probably some and it would get grey as you move into the workers self-management space.
Yeah I don’t have a strong opinion about whether they would accelerate it—I was just saying, even if some workers would support acceleration, other workers could work to slow it down.
One reason that developers might oppose slowing down AI is that it would put them out of work, wouldn’t it? (Or threaten to). So if someone is not convinced that AI poses a big risk, or thinks that pausing isn’t the best way to address the risk, then lobbying to slow down AI development would be a big cost for no obvious benefit.