If you can't stop AI, why fear it?

Imagine someone who wants a better world, more fairness, and more prosperity, and who is currently learning to give up on it, who gradually admits to himself that it would be better to give up on this future and feels guilty for each little thing he has ever done to prevent it. What a misery, what a feeling of failure, what a feeling of not being needed, what a loss of identity. This is currently the case with some friends of mine and with myself.<br><br>This is what I thought about the “data fear” that arose in recent weeks. Many of us know that everything that’s already out there can’t be deleted, and that therefore the threat already exists. But nearly everyone was afraid that by giving more data (e.g., to the “AI police”), they were making the bad future even worse. <br><br>Now I see that my anti-AI activism has made me fear that I might cause a bad future simply by existing. This probably sounds a little far-fetched, but I’ll try to explain it.<br><br>I'm sure a lot of you know what the AI lobby says about us, what fear they should instill in us and what fear they already must instill in us. They say that we will prevent the prosperity gain promised by AI and hence drive humans straight to oblivion. They say that we want to prevent a better future. <br><br>I wonder: What if they’re right? What if we are wrong? Could it be that I prevented the world from lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty? <br><br>I should not be here. I would be better off the face of the earth.