Irresponsible AI: big tech's influence on AI research and associated impacts

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how big tech dominates AI research and policy, linking corporate incentives to harmful environmental and societal outcomes of AI. It documents evidence of industry-led agendas, talent migration, and sponsorship that shape research directions, and connects scaling and general-purpose AI trends to irresponsible outcomes. The authors argue that technical fixes alone are insufficient due to capitalism-driven incentives, and advocate community-centered ethics, collective action, and labor organizing as essential components of a responsible AI ecosystem. The work aims to mobilize AI researchers toward strategies that counter corporate influence and align AI development with societal and environmental well-being.

Abstract

The accelerated development, deployment and adoption of artificial intelligence systems has been fuelled by the increasing involvement of big tech. This has been accompanied by increasing ethical concerns and intensified societal and environmental impacts. In this article, we review and discuss how these phenomena are deeply entangled. First, we examine the growing and disproportionate influence of big tech in AI research and argue that its drive for scaling and general-purpose systems is fundamentally at odds with the responsible, ethical, and sustainable development of AI. Second, we review key current environmental and societal negative impacts of AI and trace their connections to big tech and its underlying economic incentives. Finally, we argue that while it is important to develop technical and regulatory approaches to these challenges, these alone are insufficient to counter the distortion introduced by big tech's influence. We thus review and propose alternative strategies that build on the responsibility of implicated actors and collective action.