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Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, yet it causes damage to society in ways that can’t be fixed. Instead of helping to address our current crises, AI causes divisions that limit people’s life chances, and even suggests fascistic solutions to social problems. This book provides an analysis of AI’s deep learning technology and its political effects and traces the ways that it resonates with contemporary political and social currents, from global austerity to the rise of the far right. Dan McQuillan calls for us to resist AI as we know it and restructure it by prioritising the common good over algorithmic optimisation. He sets out an anti-fascist approach to AI that replaces exclusions with caring, proposes people’s councils as a way to restructure AI through mutual aid and outlines new mechanisms that would adapt to changing times by supporting collective freedom. Academically rigorous, yet accessible to a socially engaged readership, this unique book will be of interest to all who wish to challenge the social logic of AI by reasserting the importance of the common good.
190 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 15, 2022
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614 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 7, 2023
A bit repetitive in the end, but overall good. I think it is nice to always take into account who are the "collateral damages" of this new era.
May 5, 2023
Good points in this book, but the writing itself was a slog, and it ended up feeling both repetitive and a bit vague. For a piece making a similar argument in MUCH more clear and approachable language, see Ted Chiang's piece in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/science/ann...
February 18, 2025
Given the near-term acceleration of adoption of AI systems that will undoubtedly exacerbate inequality and provide an avenue for automation of oppressive behavior (and already is and has), this book is starkly more important and immediately relevant now more than ever and I highly recommend it.
April 21, 2023
A radical approach to AI that I have yet to encounter - a very refreshing take on an movement that often focuses on reform rather than abolition. Arguments have stuck with me for a long time and I frequently go back to my notes on this one. I have also listening to him talk on 'Tech Won't Save Us' - which is worth a listen!
August 24, 2023
Amazing book which unexpectedly changed my life in some ways.
Definitely recommended reading for all interested in AI.
Definitely recommended reading for all interested in AI.
Read
February 5, 2024Charts AI as solutionism, and as reinforcement rather than challenge of society's ills and norms, then pursues some ways and forms in which communities can resist the structures created and maintained by AI. Good quick read
May 26, 2025
3.5
This was a good and informative book on the importance of resisting the proliferation of AI systems because of how they reinforce a lot of the societal issues that have already been exacerbating over the past few decades. They've also been increasingly weaponized to prop up authoritarian states and control their citizens. I found the first half of the book to be compelling, although I was already quite familiar with a lot of the issues of AI in terms of how it magnifies biases present online and therefore contributes to building up an environment more misogynist, homophobic, and racist. The latter section of the book goes into how McQuillan thinks we should combat AI and that is by creating more workers and people's councils that can challenge the supremacy of AI just as it's had a history of challenging multinational corporations and governments in the past. At one point, he even says we need to"occupy AI," directly referencing the Occupy Movement in the early 2010s.
I was hesitant getting into this book because I have a bit of a knee-jerk skepticism whenever "anti-fascism" is used to justify action. Fascism as a concept seems to me to have become such a ubiquitous catch-all term that it resembles its historical use by the left throughout the 20th century to describe any system or form of political organization they disliked, just like "Commie" and "Tankie" were used by opposing parties the other way around. But I tried being open-minded here and I think that what McQuillan is referring to by fascism here is in the negative sense of a loss of true democracy and democratic values.
Overall, however, I didn't find his solution to the rise of AI to be that realizable or feasible. It's a completely different situation for workers to rally together through shared common ground to protest against the forces that disrupt their unity and sense of human dignity, than for us to somehow replicate that on a global scale with regards to AI, especially since its production and development is getting more and more decentralized (in China, for example). The book was clearly written before the rise of Large Language Models and just how much they have revolutionized how we interact with information around us. It doesn't seem like something we can just decide to all protest against in unity with other people globally. I have a feeling that McQuillan didn't expect just how much technology would accelerate over the past three years to the point that makes his suggestions here even harder to put into action. Still, this is an interesting book that is worth reading to better understanding the many flaws of AI systems that have caused consternation amongst experts in the field over the past decade or so. It just feels a bit outdated to read today since it doesn't engage with the field's latest paradigm-shifting developments such as LLMs and image and video creation. Maybe he can write a follow up that gets into those more and expand this book. We definitely need it.
This was a good and informative book on the importance of resisting the proliferation of AI systems because of how they reinforce a lot of the societal issues that have already been exacerbating over the past few decades. They've also been increasingly weaponized to prop up authoritarian states and control their citizens. I found the first half of the book to be compelling, although I was already quite familiar with a lot of the issues of AI in terms of how it magnifies biases present online and therefore contributes to building up an environment more misogynist, homophobic, and racist. The latter section of the book goes into how McQuillan thinks we should combat AI and that is by creating more workers and people's councils that can challenge the supremacy of AI just as it's had a history of challenging multinational corporations and governments in the past. At one point, he even says we need to"occupy AI," directly referencing the Occupy Movement in the early 2010s.
I was hesitant getting into this book because I have a bit of a knee-jerk skepticism whenever "anti-fascism" is used to justify action. Fascism as a concept seems to me to have become such a ubiquitous catch-all term that it resembles its historical use by the left throughout the 20th century to describe any system or form of political organization they disliked, just like "Commie" and "Tankie" were used by opposing parties the other way around. But I tried being open-minded here and I think that what McQuillan is referring to by fascism here is in the negative sense of a loss of true democracy and democratic values.
Overall, however, I didn't find his solution to the rise of AI to be that realizable or feasible. It's a completely different situation for workers to rally together through shared common ground to protest against the forces that disrupt their unity and sense of human dignity, than for us to somehow replicate that on a global scale with regards to AI, especially since its production and development is getting more and more decentralized (in China, for example). The book was clearly written before the rise of Large Language Models and just how much they have revolutionized how we interact with information around us. It doesn't seem like something we can just decide to all protest against in unity with other people globally. I have a feeling that McQuillan didn't expect just how much technology would accelerate over the past three years to the point that makes his suggestions here even harder to put into action. Still, this is an interesting book that is worth reading to better understanding the many flaws of AI systems that have caused consternation amongst experts in the field over the past decade or so. It just feels a bit outdated to read today since it doesn't engage with the field's latest paradigm-shifting developments such as LLMs and image and video creation. Maybe he can write a follow up that gets into those more and expand this book. We definitely need it.
January 5, 2023
Really stands out amidst the several books on AI ethics. This is quite an amazing book, and the perspectives used are very enlightening. This uses a very marxist-aligned viewpoint of AI as automation, and argues why AI is underpinned by an ethos of highlighting boundaries and attenuating the expression of interdependencies. The critique used here is very sharp and to the point, with a generous sprinkling of various real-world scenarios that highlight the point. It eventually ends with a few chapters on how a new anti-fascist approach to AI design could be reimagined. The book clearly states what should be the foundational ethos of an anti-fascist approach to AI, one of which is fraternity and reciprocity. It seeks to take the carceral ethos out of AI in a very deep sense, and says how AI could flourish while allowing human beings to remain human.
August 20, 2024
We have a few differences in thought, but generally amazing. A foundational text, highly worth the read for anybody.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews