The Luxury of Discussion: AI, Power and the Illusion of Open Debate — Part 2

In the previous column, I queried DeepSeek concerning a remark by Dr. Stephanie Hare. In the context of a debate about whether data centers were an opportunity or a threat, Hare claimed that “a little bit of friction in some of these processes is great because we agree this is a largely unregulated technology at the moment. Whether that’s good or bad or not is a problem that we have the luxury of discussing in liberal democracies. If you’re in an authoritarian country, they’re just building them.” In my full prompt, I asked a couple of questions: How consoling is that luxury when those ordinary citizens who exercise it actively must do so by challenging AI labs and decision-makers who themselves possess billions to promote their own interests and have access literally to trillions of other people’s money to make it work, with no formal accountability? Do you agree the debate should be recentered by taking into account what are ultimately political considerations?

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.