Technorealist manifesto on AI

Summary

Manifesto positioning: the AI of 2023 is now a technology with the potential to transform our lives significantly, but the roots of these transformations run deep.

The editorial perspective

It is not easy to form an opinion on this manifesto. Without a doubt, it is intelligent and deeply thought-out.

The approach is techno-critical, highlighting the contradictions of AI enthusiasm in terms of its ability to contribute to ecological transition or societal well-being.

Throughout the manifesto, the technical expertise of its authors is evident, which is highly valuable and attests to their deep knowledge of AI’s technical and societal challenges.

However, the reading experience is somewhat demanding. Despite the site’s stated intention to encourage understanding without being didactic ("we will avoid giving general lessons or best practices", as stated in the website’s introduction), Technorealisme often comes across as overly assertive, with somewhat aggressive phrasing.

Examples include:

- "keep in mind",

- "Platonic unicorn dreamers",

- "naïve technophiles dazzled by progress",

- "apocalyptic ideological technophobes".

On frugal AI, the manifesto’s stance is uncompromising:

"AI cannot be frugal. Energy optimization efforts will not yield significant benefits and merely mask a fundamentally flawed system."

Rather than exploring how to create a more frugal AI, the manifesto positions itself in opposition. To fully grasp this perspective, it is important to understand that Technorealisme takes a systemic rather than technical approach.

It argues that local optimizations may yield short-term benefits, but in an interconnected world, these gains will inevitably be offset by new services consuming additional resources.