The Rise of the AI Anxieties
We are living through a unique cultural moment where the discourse around Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly polarized. On one side, there's unbridled optimism; on the other, a deep-seated fear that manifests as everything from legitimate ethical critique to outright hostility towards its users. Concerns about its environmental impact, the centralization of corporate power, privacy, and worker displacement are not just valid; they are critical challenges society must navigate.
However, history is filled with examples of transformative technologies that sparked similar fears. The printing press threatened the scribe's livelihood, the factory threatened the artisan's, and the digital camera was seen by some as the death of "true" photography. Yet, in each case, the technology ultimately created more opportunity, more wealth, and more creative potential than it destroyed. The question, then, is not whether AI has potential downsides, but whether its potential upsides for the vast majority of people outweigh them. This is precisely where the ethical framework of utilitarianism becomes so useful.
A Brief History of the "Greatest Good"
Utilitarianism as a formal school of thought emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries, most famously with the philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. At its core, it is a form of consequentialismāmeaning it judges an action's morality based on its results or consequences.
The guiding principle is simple and profound: the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Crucially, utilitarianism was a progressive and revolutionary philosophy. Its proponents advocated for social reforms like the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the decriminalization of homosexuality because they correctly calculated that these changes would vastly increase the total sum of human well-being and decrease suffering. It is a philosophy of forward momentum, focused on building a better future for all.
The Utilitarian Case for Embracing AI
Applying the principle of utilitarianism to AI, we are ethically compelled to weigh the total potential happiness against the potential suffering. While the risks are real and must be mitigated, the potential benefits are staggering in scale and scope.
AI is poised to revolutionize healthcare, a primary source of global suffering, by amplifying human health and longevity. Its models can drastically accelerate drug discovery and improve diagnostics by detecting diseases from medical scans with superhuman accuracy, making early screening more accessible and effective. From a utilitarian view, contributing to even one major cure would create an incalculable reduction in suffering.
Beyond health, AI provides a new class of tools to address humanity's most complex global challenges.
The massive data centers required to train AI models contribute to global emissions, but this challenge does not negate AI's potential. Instead, it frames the utilitarian objective: to leverage AI to create environmental efficiencies that far outweigh its own energy costs. It can help mitigate climate change by optimizing energy grids for renewables, bolster food security through precision agriculture, and aid disaster relief by analyzing satellite imagery. The goal is to ensure that the combined utility of a more stable climate, a secure food supply, and effective crisis response is a clear net positive for humanity.
Democratizing Access and Opportunity
Furthermore, AI acts as a powerful lever for democratizing opportunity, creativity, and productivity. This democratization is especially profound when considering accessibility, a point often lost in mainstream critiques. Many arguments against AI are framed from a neurotypical and able-bodied perspective, inadvertently dismissing the transformative power these tools represent for millions. For individuals with learning disabilities, AuDHD, or other forms of neurodivergence, AI serves as a vital accessibility tool. It directly supports users by acting as an executive function aid, a text-to-speech reader, or a way to organize and process information into knowledge. In this context, AI isn't a shortcut that undermines "real" work; it's an indispensable support that makes it possible in the first place.
This support extends profoundly to individuals with physical disabilities. For the blind and those with low vision, AI-powered apps can narrate the visual world through a phoneās camera, describing objects, reading text, and even recognizing faces. For the deaf and hard of hearing, AI provides real-time captioning of conversations and can power hearing aids that intelligently isolate voices from background noise. Beyond sensory assistance, AI is revolutionizing mobility. It drives smart prosthetics that learn and adapt to a user's movements for more natural control, and it enables voice-command systems that give individuals with motor impairments control over their digital and physical environments. By leveling the playing field in these fundamental ways, AI allows a vast, often overlooked, segment of the population to participate more fully in education, the workforce, and society.
Just as the camera gave artists a new medium, generative AI offers creative professionals a powerful suite of tools for ideation, experimentation, and production. More profoundly, it gives an independent creator or entrepreneur the capabilities of a small corporation. Repetitive tasks that once required entire departmentsāfrom generating marketing copy and social media schedules to creating video storyboards and processing sales leadsācan now be automated. This frees up the human creator to focus on high-level strategy, artistic vision, and building client relationships.
For many people struggling to make a living, this newfound efficiency can be the crucial factor that allows them to move from merely surviving to thriving as a small business or independent professional, enabling them to bring more ambitious projects to life and compete on a scale previously unimaginable. For the utilitarian, this empowerment of individuals and reduction of inequality is a massive net good, fostering a more knowledgeable and creative global society.
Conclusion: A Call for Responsible Progress
The utilitarian calculus for AI is clear: the potential for good is immense, but it is not guaranteed. Achieving that greater good requires a collective, conscious effort from all sides of the debate.
To those who detract and resist, consider your own future. AI by itself will not replace you anytime soon. More likely, you risk being displaced by humans who actively and skillfully integrate these tools into their workflows. The pragmatic choice is not to build walls, but to learn the landscape.
To AIās zealous promoters and the creators of endless, low-effort "slop," the message is simple: slow down. The race to generate quantity over quality erodes the very promise of this technology. True value lies in thoughtful application, not automated noise.
To the companies driving this revolution, please stop rushing terrible, half-baked AI products to market. Each flawed release diminishes public trust, making it harder to realize the profound benefits we've discussed. Metaās AI products, for example, are all terrible and generally useless. Ethical development and rigorous testing are not obstacles to progress; they are the only way to ensure it is sustainable.
Finally, to those who mock or harass others for using these tools, it's time to consider a broader perspective. What is easily dismissed as a toy or a cheat code is, for many, a vital accessibility toolāa bridge to communication, education, and independence. Such judgment often reveals a profound lack of awareness about the diverse needs that exist in our society. Policing how others achieve their goals helps nobody and often serves only to marginalize those who benefit most from new technology.
The most ethical path forward is not to retreat in fear or to advance with blind zeal. It is to create and move forward with purpose, to actively and thoughtfully steer this powerful new technology toward maximizing the well-being of all humanity.
