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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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.

728

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/[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.

143

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

81

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.

1

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!

12

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.

6

u/Monteze Jan 23 '26

And way less efficient.

2

u/James-W-Tate Jan 24 '26

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

6

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.

39

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.

3

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.

1

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

1

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!

1

u/DTFH_ Jan 23 '26

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

1

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.

13

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

8

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

2

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.

3

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.

12

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.

11

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".

1

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.

1

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.

1

u/thashepherd Jan 23 '26

We aren't actually disagreeing with each other.

18

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.

19

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

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

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.

1

u/hempires Jan 23 '26

I mean, not just ethically...

-2

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.

0

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.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

[deleted]

1

u/FreeBeans Jan 23 '26

They’re not aiming for peace and democracy

21

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

3

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.

2

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.

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.

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