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Big AI is accelerating the metacrisis: What can we do?

Steven Bird

TL;DR

The paper argues that Big AI accelerates a global metacrisis spanning ecological damage, loss of meaning, and language endangerment. It critiques the structural incentives of Big AI, showing that the supposed scalability and self-regulation do not justify harms, and that the ethics of current practices are insufficient. It calls for seven action pillars within the ACL/NLP community to reorient research toward public good, protected spaces for critical NLP, and life-sustaining, decolonial approaches. The goal is to design NLP on a living planet with leadership and new governance that prioritize human flourishing and planetary health.

Abstract

The world is in the grip of ecological, meaning, and language crises which are converging into a metacrisis. Big AI is accelerating them all. Language engineers are playing a central role, persisting with a scalability story that is failing humanity, supplying critical talent to plutocrats and kleptocrats, and creating new technologies as if the whole endeavour was value-free. We urgently need to explore alternatives, applying our collective intelligence to design a life-affirming future for NLP that is centered on human flourishing on a living planet.

Big AI is accelerating the metacrisis: What can we do?

TL;DR

The paper argues that Big AI accelerates a global metacrisis spanning ecological damage, loss of meaning, and language endangerment. It critiques the structural incentives of Big AI, showing that the supposed scalability and self-regulation do not justify harms, and that the ethics of current practices are insufficient. It calls for seven action pillars within the ACL/NLP community to reorient research toward public good, protected spaces for critical NLP, and life-sustaining, decolonial approaches. The goal is to design NLP on a living planet with leadership and new governance that prioritize human flourishing and planetary health.

Abstract

The world is in the grip of ecological, meaning, and language crises which are converging into a metacrisis. Big AI is accelerating them all. Language engineers are playing a central role, persisting with a scalability story that is failing humanity, supplying critical talent to plutocrats and kleptocrats, and creating new technologies as if the whole endeavour was value-free. We urgently need to explore alternatives, applying our collective intelligence to design a life-affirming future for NLP that is centered on human flourishing on a living planet.
Paper Structure (23 sections, 1 figure)

This paper contains 23 sections, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Cascading Crises
  3. LLMs are implicated in three crises
  4. Ecological crisis:
  5. Meaning crisis:
  6. Language crisis:
  7. LLMs amplify crisis interactions
  8. Meaning crisis $\leftrightarrow$ language crisis:
  9. Language crisis $\leftrightarrow$ ecological crisis:
  10. The metacrisis:
  11. A Sober Assessment
  12. Big AI will not govern itself
  13. The benefits do not justify the harms
  14. The scalability story is a myth
  15. Despair is not an option
  16. ...and 8 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Big AI, the Metacrisis, and Technofeudalism