{"id":893,"date":"2025-07-28T17:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/?p=893"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:52:05","slug":"ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"AI will in time equal Social Control &#8211; and not BY AI but THROUGH AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What goes unsaid, far as I&#8217;ve seen&#8230;. Perhaps it sounds too blunt, too alarmist: The more dependent we become on AI, the more vulnerable we become to social control systems set up by those who do the initial programming and administrative monitoring of AI. AI will be giving *us* prompts.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;ll be an  illusory notion shared by the general public that AI will be a system that &#8220;knows  better&#8221;; it&#8217;ll be viewed (unthinkingingly but definitely) as a kind of electronic Oz Wizard\/Einsteinian polymath digital genius who knows all. But in fact it will be a device for imprinting the agenda of the Musks of the world and their neofascist cronies. AI will in time equal oppressive Social Control &#8211; and not <em>BY<\/em> AI but <em>THROUGH<\/em> AI. The key to their social control will be the carefully fashioned illusion that AI is independent; that its supposedly all-comprehending mind will give us directions, promptings, regimens, through <em>its own initiative<\/em> alone. But the outcomes, the specific regimen, will derive from a small, unspeakably wealthy elite cadre of human beings who will not care in the slightest about the rest of us.  <\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll come into essentially living in Orwell&#8217;s <em>1984<\/em> from a different angle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI will in time equal oppressive Social Control &#8211; and not BY AI but THROUGH AI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AI will in time equal Social Control - and not BY AI but THROUGH AI - John Shirley Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI will in time equal Social Control - and not BY AI but THROUGH AI - John Shirley Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AI will in time equal oppressive Social Control - and not BY AI but THROUGH AI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Shirley Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-28T17:29:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-28T17:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JohnShi89860948\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JohnShi89860948\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/\",\"name\":\"AI will in time equal Social Control - and not BY AI but THROUGH AI - John Shirley Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-28T17:29:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-28T17:52:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f7425c37de220e094dc813afc173e5ae\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/ai-will-in-time-equal-social-control-and-not-by-ai-but-through-ai\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"AI will in time equal Social Control &#8211; 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