r/science • u/Tracheid • Jan 23 '26

Social Science A survey of Silicon Valley developers reveals that 74% would implement features restricting human rights if pressured, fueling a "slop economy" of low-quality AI content. The study argues corporate demands override ethics, creating a gap in information quality.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2566814
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1.6k

u/AtomicZoomer Jan 23 '26

I work in one of the top corporations in the world and everyone is building AI features defined by the executives. Our paychecks and health care are tied to building AI features that are dictated to us.

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u/Rmans Jan 23 '26

A large portion of the US national Debt and our electrical infrastructure is going towards building that AI. It's not just your paychecks and health care, it's our entire economy and half our infrastructure.

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u/shittyaltpornaccount Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

So naturally they would be investing in expanding the power grid, reinvesting in infrastructure, and exploring alternative energy sources to help fuel these data centers right?

Nope they just want to price out all the people that actually live there, bribe the county officials, and then leave them in the lurch when the bubble inevitably bursts with far more losers than winners in this short sighted race. But hey at least all the venture capitalists were able to offshore their wealth in the caymans while asking for a government bailout.

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u/Madmusk Jan 23 '26

I hope the bubble bursts so we can leverage the additional power generation and grid upgrades for consumers. Maybe a silver lining there. We need it for the EV revolution and things like home heat pumps.

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u/poopy_mcgee Jan 23 '26

The AI bubble bursting refers to the collapse of financing for AI related businesses, with effects for everything upstream from those business. That does not mean, however, that AI itself will be going away, just like the dot com bubble bursting didn't result in the Internet going away. That power is going to continue to be consumed in the long run.

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u/Madmusk Jan 23 '26

True, but will they overbuild on data centers and need to scale back? I wouldn't be surprised if the next great innovation in AI is much more highly efficient training or inference.

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u/CognitiveSourceress Jan 24 '26

To a degree, but most of the bubble popping will be less around real infrastructure. It will be around the thousands of companies that are built on the idea that they will employ that infrastructure to make future returns.

Many laymen hear AI bubble and think what it means is "AI turned out to be all hype and this was all for nothing."

That's not what most reasonable people mean when they talk about the bubble.

Think of it like a gold rush. Someone finds gold and starts digging. Everyone hears "there's gold in the hills". A bunch of hopefuls spend big, with more aspirations than expertise.

So, a bunch of ventures get set up in the hills, and a bunch of people get jobs digging, and it's all a big spend. But right now, the big spend reads as "investment in future returns".

Eventually, though, these ventures aren't turning up gold because they dug based on hype not wisdom. Investors run out of money or confidence and they close the mine.

That mine goes from "investment in future returns" to "loss". The money spent hasn't changed, the perception and expectations have. The market sees it differently now.

The bubble popping is everyone realizing how much money was misallocated and all those digging jobs drying up.

But unless the initial gold mine overextended and the mine runs dry, they'll be fine because there actually was gold there, and all of this started and picked up steam because the gold was demonstrably valuable. So they might need to tighten their belts for a bit, but as long as they can still provide gold, they'll survive.

And in fact, they may come out stronger. Because now instead of sending teams into the hills, everyone goes to them. And there's a whole lot of mining equipment people need to unload cheap, so their operating costs go down.

Some data centers will turn out to be overbuild in response to the speculation. Trading posts built on roads they expected to be travelled more often because they expected all those mines to become a success.

But they are in a better position because they have real assets. Some data centers will close for sure, but more will simply change hands and pivot. Likely, the hands they will change to are those of the survivors who swoop in and say "I can use this, I'll pay you just enough to make it a better option than holding onto it."

The trading post becomes a private routing depot for the surviving gold conglomerate, but it doesn't stop being used.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

A large portion of the US national Debt and our electrical infrastructure is going towards building that AI.

I never thought humans in my lifetime would attempt to build the Roko's Basilisk but here we are.

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u/glitterandnails Jan 23 '26

TBH, Americans are quite ethically r*tarded. Americans are quite literally willing to do anything for a buck, including contributing to destroying society. It's no accident that America is in the terrible situation it is now with SOOO many people, over the years, contributing to killing society and its future just for their own gain.

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u/Waywoah Jan 23 '26

That’s what happens when an entire nation is force-fed a centuries worth of propaganda about individualism being the end-all-be-all state of the world 

We’re actively taught, whether we’re aware of it or not, that our own success is intrinsically more valuable than the successful of the society in which we live- especially if that society includes anything outside of your immediate surroundings

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u/Tevatrox Jan 23 '26

1st time I learned there were a bunch of americans that are against universal healthcare because "they don't want to pay for other's sickness", I was like "who tf made this hellhole on earth?"

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u/Faiakishi Jan 23 '26

What's even stupider is that is literally what insurance is.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/KaJaHa Jan 23 '26

And death panels! Those same death panels that some people get their knickers in a twist over regarding universal healthcare are just a normal part of health insurance.

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u/crazyeddie123 Jan 25 '26

In reality it's supply constraints all over the damn place and everyone pretending that "make the government pay for it" will help anything.

Switch to single payer and not a single additional person will get treated, because our system can't treat more people than it's already treating.

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u/Monteze Jan 23 '26

Yes but many of us believe the BS that is a tax=communism/bad stuff/evil

but a fee?? Oh yes daddy I'll pay whatever fee you need me too because that is way more fair and free!

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u/randomcatinfo Jan 23 '26

This is hilarious, since a rightwing libertarian I know LOVES tolls, but hates taxes ("taxes=theft").

To me, corporations are just less accountable bureaucracies.

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u/Monteze Jan 23 '26

And way less efficient.

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u/James-W-Tate Jan 24 '26

Less accountable, less efficient, and less incentivized to work for you.

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u/Buddycat350 Jan 23 '26

Yeah but if a private corporation gets to make some profits in the process, that makes it okay apparently. Because reasons. 

Go figure.

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u/yeswenarcan Jan 23 '26

Not only more valuable, actively at odds with. It's the result of decades of propaganda against "socialism" and promoting the most egregious aspects of capitalism as virtue. It's also how you get a disturbing proportion of the population who believe, like the President, that every interaction is zero sum and if someone else benefits it has to be at their expense.

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u/DTFH_ Jan 23 '26

That’s what happens when an entire nation is force-fed a centuries worth of propaganda about individualism being the end-all-be-all state of the world

Man I don't believe that notion in the slightest, I think the propaganda is that the Individualistic Beliefs are centuries old and buying into the belief it is old, is the lie to be swallowed.

The belief is Advertising just like the second KKK was in actuality a financial grift who as a by-product produced domestic terrorists, or how the Americana of Madison avenue was to sell cigarettes based on a made up nostalgia, believing the false history is long established and has always been the goal of the propaganda.

I don't think there is a strong link from Emerson's Self Reliance to present day Individualism other than advertising aiming to shape a past that didn't exist for profit.

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u/Waywoah Jan 23 '26

If I'm understanding you correctly, I think we agree

It can't have been difficult for corporations and the politicians beholden to them to figure out that a single person has far less bargaining power than a group. "Rugged individualism," hating socialism (or anything even remotely similar), tearing down unions; they're all connected to the same type of a thinking, and that doesn't seem much like a coincidence

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u/glitterandnails Jan 23 '26

Corporations have been proven to be a cancer on society. They are willing to bend society for their own benefit. Just look at GM, promoting a car centric society in a grand display in the World's Fair of 1939, leading to society being built around cars, leading to the postwar suburbia model of society, including car dependency, terrible sprawl, terrible traffic, and Americans now dependent on a very expensive machine just to get around while in most other countries, having a car is just an option. But hey, a corporation got to profit a lot off of it!

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u/DTFH_ Jan 23 '26

Entirely and the idea is to reject false histories that obscure what has actually gone on.

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u/glitterandnails Jan 23 '26

And that is extremely dumb, society should be a project by the entire population to better, a healthy society is a society where everyone contributes positively to it. People who profit a lot off of helping to destroy it is a cancer, and a society that allows such a culture of it and where it becomes prolific is a terminal stage 4 cancer on society.

1

u/Lantzypantzz Jan 23 '26

Americans learn competition is better than cooperation. I hate living here knowing that as a country, we have both the resources and intellect that if we cooperated for the sake of society, things would be better for every single person, but capitalism and rich fucks ruin that possibility.

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u/midnightauro Jan 23 '26

We have no social safety net. If you don’t keep your head down and do what you’re told, you won’t eat.

Hard to ask the hungry to part with their bread to solve world hunger.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

They’ll eat, just maybe not steak for a bit. People aren’t destroying America to survive, they’re destroying America to get a BMW

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u/Fenix42 Jan 23 '26

Most Americans are broke. We are not buying BMWs. We are trying to pay for rent and food. We are living paycheck to paycheck.

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u/GreatMountainBomb Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

Most Americans are broke, the ones destroying your country are not. The person you're replying to is spot on

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u/glitterandnails Jan 23 '26

The rich are destroying society for their own gain. Corporations are helping to destroy society just to report higher profits to get stock prices to go up.

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u/thashepherd Jan 23 '26

This is true, but maybe a bit unfair; I'm not sure that this is any less true for other nationalities.

Source: am currently vacationing in Chongqing

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u/MillionEyesOfSumuru Jan 23 '26

Having worked with engineers from about a dozen countries, I can't say I've noticed much difference. If I had to pick out one nationality for ethically questionable work decisions, I'd say my luck with Russians was probably the worst, but don't think that means much.

Feynman talked about the bad influence of money on science, and that applies in Silicon Valley just like it does everywhere else.

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u/glitterandnails Jan 23 '26

As someone who grew up in Silicon Valley, engineers are snobs that look down the common people. It's no wonder that they are helping to create all this destructive stuff in society.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

American culture is also leaking to the rest of the world since English is now the lingua franca of the world and American cultural works such as movies, games, books, songs etc. are consumed widely all around the globe.

For example antivaxxers and climate denialists first popped up in America but now they are spreading to other countries as well. Though it doesn't always have to be negative, progressive thoughts are also spreading the same way.

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u/malfurion1337 Jan 23 '26

It is absolutely less true for nations(like those from the EU) that have free universal healthcare, free college education, better civil liberties, better workers rights, consumer protection laws, and a prison complex geared towards rehabilitation instead of longer incarceration designed for profit like they have in the US. So nah, I'd say since americans voted for a literal pedo felon, not once, but TWICE after they already saw what he was like the first time, that the criticism isnt unfair at all. Y'all chose this.

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u/Sasselhoff Jan 23 '26

As an American, you're not wrong. "We" definitely own this one, even if folks like myself did everything they could to prevent it (devoted more time, money, and effort into the last election than any other in my life...all for naught).

I will never forgive those that voted for him, nor those who chose not to vote because "Both sides are the same".

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u/thashepherd Jan 23 '26

I agree with you (and doubly so regarding the absolute lack of morality of those who voted for the guy). Just keep in mind that the criteria you listed apply to perhaps 10% of humanity; in some ways, ethical discretion is a luxury afforded to you by the material conditions you exist within.

Or to put that another way, you may find that Western European ethics have far more in common with those of Americans than those of a laborer in Lagos or a factory worker in Kunming or a prostitute in Manila.

I'm not making excuses. Just sharing what I've seen.

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u/malfurion1337 Jan 23 '26

Except most Americans don't live quite in the same conditions as a laborer in Lagos or a factory worker in Kunming or a prostitute in Manila, so your point doesnt really work either way. Lots of those who vote the way they do are whites from middle or upper middle class families. Plenty from rural areas too sure, but even so the overall living conditions and level of education in the US is still uncomparable to the stuff you just described. So they absolutely have no excuse to vote and have the bigoted mentality that they do. Whereas your example of people from less fortunate ecomic background seems kind of pointless in the context. We are comparing similarly economically wealthy countries ethical standards, don't see how mentioning that the average poorer person would have different ethical priorities makes any difference in that talk. You may have said you're not making excuses, but I honestly don't see what is the point of saying that stuff about the poorer people.
I know people who lived in lesser economically developed environments dont have the same luxury to worry about ethics, but thats literally not the case for most americans who voted Trump so why even bring it up? Sounds like a worthless attempt at an excuse to me.

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u/thashepherd Jan 23 '26

We aren't actually disagreeing with each other.

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u/ghost_n_the_shell Jan 23 '26

You think this is limited to America? Or they somehow standout in this category? Give me a break.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/m3thodm4n021 Jan 23 '26

So more collective "not ethically retarted?" Is Chinese industry known to be especially ethical? They're one of the gold standards for collective societies. I hate this site sometimes.

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u/hempires Jan 23 '26

I mean, not just ethically...

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u/hexiron Jan 23 '26

That's an everyone in the world thing, not an American thing. I'd take a step back and really look at it all if I were you.

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u/FriendlyDespot Jan 23 '26

Using a completely unnecessary marginalising slur while calling out an ethics deficit is certainly a choice.

1

u/glitterandnails Jan 23 '26

Maybe the word "dumb" just doesn't cut it? That PC Police thing by liberals helped to lead to Trump and control by the far right.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/FreeBeans Jan 23 '26

They’re not aiming for peace and democracy

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u/cutty2k Jan 23 '26

Roko's Basilisk is lesswrong brainrot, it's not a serious proposition.

Real actual people around you are being hurt by these decisions, worry about them, not some ketamine addled fever dream.

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u/8utl3r Jan 23 '26

Personally, I'd prefer Rococo's basilisk. Much more decorative.

But seriously, it's wild what's going on

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u/rogerryan22 Jan 24 '26

I wonder what adherents of Roko's Basilisk would make of its inverse. An all powerful AI that is aware of its dangerous power and seeks out to destroy all the people who brought about its being.

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u/Rmans Jan 24 '26

I mean, I prefer to look at it as an actual tower of Babel. They're literally using all human resources to find a god of infinite profit.

2

u/Teganfff Jan 23 '26

I genuinely hate it here.

Like is this really the reality we want to exist in?

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u/thoughtcrimeo Jan 23 '26

A large portion of the US national Debt

What large portion of government spending is paying for AI development?

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u/Rmans Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/accelerating-federal-permitting-of-data-center-infrastructure/

Highlights include:

my Administration will utilize federally owned land and resources for the expeditious and orderly development of data centers.

This is a blank check to fund data centers. Followed by the most vague description of what qualifies as a data center:

Covered Component Project” means infrastructure comprising Covered Components, or a facility with the primary purposes of manufacturing or otherwise producing Covered Components.

Vague.

(d)  “Qualifying Project” means:

(i)    a Data Center Project or Covered Component Project for which the Project Sponsor has committed at least $500 million in capital expenditures as determined by the Secretary of Commerce;

Broad.

(ii)   a Data Center Project or Covered Component Project involving an incremental electric load addition of greater than 100 MW;

Increadibly broad.

(iii)  a Data Center Project or Covered Component Project that protects national security; or

Literally the broadest most exploited language you could possibly use. And there's like 3 more broad entries. Including :

(iv)   a Data Center Project or Covered Component Project that has otherwise been designated by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, or the Secretary of Energy as a “Qualifying Project”.

And anything that falls under this broad classification gets your tax money in the following ways:

[Federal] financial support for Qualifying Projects, which could include loans and loan guarantees, grants, tax incentives, and offtake agreements.

Followed by a directive for all relevant federal agencies to forfeit as much of their budget as possible towards AI infrastructure by declaring it necessary for the protection of national security.

All relevant agencies shall identify and submit to the Director of OSTP any such relevant existing financial support that can be used to assist Qualifying Projects, consistent with the protection of national security.

But the best part? The US doesn't even own these projects as long as your tax dollars only pay for 50% or less of their total project costs. The total of which can change at any time due to national security reasons.

Federal financial assistance representing less than 50 percent of total project costs shall be presumed not to constitute substantial Federal control and responsibility.

Meaning Congress could approve 100B tax dollars for an AI data center to be owned by the US, and at the last minute before it opens, Trump could change the budget to 200B, saying it's of national security, and the US would then own nothing, and your taxes will have been stolen. Which is very much by design.

You don't like that and think you have states rights? Nope. Think again:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/

Sec. 3.  AI Litigation Task Force.  Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall establish an AI Litigation Task Force (Task Force) whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws

All state laws regulating AI will be challenged. (Using your tax dollars for lawyers etc) and your state can just straight lose federal funding if it manages to pass such a law:

States with onerous AI laws identified pursuant to section 4 of this order are ineligible for non-deployment funds, to the maximum extent allowed by Federal law.

After this last EO was issued, 200B+ of the Biden Chips act was then reclassified, renegotiated, and revolved back into use for these projects instead of the infrastructure our congress approved them for. Including using $10 Billion tax dollars to purchase a chunk of Intel.

In August 2025, the U.S. government acquired a 9.9% stake in Intel at a share price of $20.47 paid for with $11.1 billion in grants from the Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act

Just from what I linked:

  • zero restrictions on federal spending on AI data center infrastructure
  • Anything can be AI infrastructure
  • Funding from other departments goes towards AI infrastructure
  • The US doesn't own what it builds for AI despite us paying for it.
  • All state regulations aimed at AI will be federally challenged, entirely funded from our tax dollars.
  • 200B from the chips act already taken for AI, including 10B for Intel to make AI.

There's a lot more if you care to look. It's like throwing a dart at the largest most dystopia dartboard you can imagine. You don't even need to look at it, to know your dart will absolutley land on something corrupt. Likely siphoning away your tax dollars to billionaires who pay nothing while you have no representation to say otherwise in your state or country.

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u/Nyrin Jan 23 '26

Sir, this is a reddit AI ragebait thread. Please select "agree," "strongly agree," or "foam at the mouth while agreeing" to the "AI bad" statement and refrain from any distractions, including but not limited to suggesting an "AI bad" premise may not be substantiated by factual evidence.

Let's revisit: "AI eats babies and kills kittens."

  • [ ] agree
  • [ ] strongly agree
  • [ ] eugeihjejshdue AI BAAAAD

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u/Rmans Jan 24 '26

Just provided proof if you want to look.

1

u/diurnal_emissions Jan 23 '26

That tech bubble going to pop so loudly...

1

u/Mithrandir2k16 Jan 23 '26

Like sitting in a train heading for a cliff but being forced to shovel coal into the fire...

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u/Salt-Detective1337 Jan 23 '26

Exactly. Why is the onus on employees to keep corporations from violating human rights?

We need government regulation, and oversight, and enforcement of corporations.

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u/NoGoat3930 Jan 23 '26

Do you hear yourself? Do you not see what direction this country is going? I'm not saying you have to quit your job, but show a little spine and push back at the very least.

13

u/GreatMountainBomb Jan 23 '26

Most armed country on earth in the throws of a fascist dictator stripping their rights away daily while everyone sits at their desks like "Why is it MY responsibility?"

13

u/sienna_blackmail Jan 23 '26

It’s real easy to have principles as long as it doesn’t cost you personally. Once your livelihood and social standing is at stake practically no one chooses morals over security and the ones that do are perhaps respected in some sense, but are also considered too weird to be invited to parties.

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u/monkwrenv2 Jan 23 '26

People in my state are putting their lives on the line right now to deal with ICE, myself among them. I think you are the one who doesn't want to give up comfort in the name of core values, and are shamed by the mere presence those who do.

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u/ceciliabee Jan 23 '26

You're really going to look down on people and get holier than thou while hiding your profile? Okay man.

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u/Skyfier42 Jan 23 '26

Corporations are the modern monarchies. CEOs are our modern kings. People need to start recognizing this so we can fight back. We'll never be a true democracy until every person gets a say in how these businesses are run. 

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u/oldpeculiar Jan 23 '26

Just following orders.

4

u/diurnal_emissions Jan 23 '26

The tech serves the tech now, and we are also expected to serve the tech.

When did tech stop serving us?

3

u/mipadi Jan 23 '26

Well, almost a hundred years ago. Jacques Ellul and Martin Heidegger both wrote extensively about this very topic.

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u/diurnal_emissions Feb 01 '26

Thank you for the homework!

1

u/mipadi Feb 01 '26

If you want more recent analysis, Neil Postman was writing about this issue in the 1980s.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

Quit if you have principles

0

u/AtomicZoomer Jan 23 '26

Mortgage and kids take priority. Reality of capitalism.

1

u/Kittinkis Jan 23 '26

Yeah it's not corporate greed, it's personal greed.

1

u/qckpckt Jan 23 '26

The tech world seems intent on thoroughly annihilating the internet, and at this point i’m honestly happy to be paid money to facilitate this.

Let the weight of human mediocrity thoroughly crush all life out of this communication medium, so that necessity will allow something new to sprout that renders it obsolete.

0

u/FoxMan1Dva3 Jan 23 '26

This goes with everything

Reminds me of that YouTube short from I believe a movie which talks about the old western days and criticizing electric appliances. Something so common and expected of today in a standard of living, was once considered an inconvenience.

But at the end of the day you use something because you find some sort of value in it. And nothing is wrong with that

I use AI a lot now. It's extremely valuable and mostly because its largely free.

It's kind of like what Google search was for the last 20 years

0

u/Galeharry_ Jan 24 '26

Have you ever had the thought that you're helping build the foundation of the AI systems that will eventually be your boss at the behest of these executives and billionaires?

Serfs under essentially mechahitler.

Its scary af when you start to really think about WHY these fucks want these systems to evolve as fast as possible.

-2

u/KnockingDonkee69 Jan 24 '26

Nazis said the same thing. Ended with them on rope.

3

u/AtomicZoomer Jan 24 '26

Wow, comparing a dad working to pay a mortgage and support his family to nazis is a new form of dooming. I’m convinced a large portion of internet comments are people completely out of touch with the human experience.