{"id":52885,"date":"2026-06-30T08:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=52885"},"modified":"2026-06-30T08:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:29:17","slug":"the-ai-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2026\/06\/30\/the-ai-compass\/","title":{"rendered":"The AI Compass"},"content":{"rendered":"

This “AI Compass” test<\/a> was interesting. As with most such tests, it’s not perfect, and I have some quibbles with some of the questions and answers, particularly some where I think it falls into the usual trap of using “AI” for everything, and not adequately distinguishing between genAI and machine learning (ML), but still, not bad.<\/p>\n

My result:<\/p>\n

\n\"Four-quadrant
I’m the glowy orange dot. Looks like I’m right on the border, almost ending up classified as “The Skeptic” (full description below). (Side note: Pity about the poor and very inaccessible color design.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n YOU ARE…
\n The Union Organizer<\/b>
\n patron saint: Cory Doctorow.
\n AI is a real tool being used to extract real labor value from real people without paying them. You don’t care about the singularity \u2014 you care about the artists, writers, and workers getting strip-mined by capital. You’re not anti-technology. You’re anti-theft.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking at the full list of possible outcomes, I’d self-identify as one of the following. I think it’s my hedging slightly on some of the answers because of the genAI\/ML confusion that pushed me into the result I got. They’re all in the same general “don’t like it, don’t trust it, don’t want it” quadrant, though.<\/p>\n

\n The Luddite (Affectionate)<\/b>
\n patron saint: Emily Bender
\n It doesn’t work the way they claim, it’s making everything worse, and you’d like your internet back, please. You can explain in precise technical detail why it’s a stochastic parrot, and you will, whether or not anyone asked. You’re funnier about this than people give you credit for.<\/p>\n

The Digital Hermit<\/b>
\n patron saint: Jaron Lanier
\n You’ve been saying the framing is wrong since before most people had heard of any of this. AI is less a technology than a story Silicon Valley tells to consolidate power, and the story is bad. You read physical books and you don’t need a language model to tell you what they mean.<\/p>\n

The Skeptic<\/b>
\n patron saint: Ed Zitron
\n It’s oversold, it’s losing staggering amounts of money, and the harms are arriving faster than the value. You’ve done the math on the unit economics and it doesn’t close. You are loud about this, prolific about this, and you suspect history will vindicate you.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Union Organizer: AI is a real tool being used to extract real labor value from real people without paying them. You don’t care about the singularity \u2014 you care about the artists, writers, and workers getting strip-mined by capital. You’re not anti-technology. You’re anti-theft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2038],"tags":[1764],"class_list":["post-52885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52888,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52885\/revisions\/52888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}