How big tech wants to create a new man. "It's not fascism, it's Babel"

Criticism of big tech argues over political labels. Meanwhile, what is currently being built in Silicon Valley is not a political project, but the latest incarnation of a very old idea: to transcend human nature by our own means.

Big tech isn’t getting a lot of good press these days. Although we all use the services of technological giants every day in one way or another (mainly because we have no choice), more and more people clearly notice the dissonance between the hopes aroused by PR departments and the reality in which it is increasingly difficult to see the positive impact of this or that technology.

Quite recently, after the successes of biotechnology companies such as AlphaFold, there was talk of rapid drug discoveries, including cancer drugs, while the most visible result of the use of AI turned out to be images of questionable quality on the Internet. Even popular AI enthusiasts, who not long ago were drawing great visions of the future, with new professions that would be in demand thanks to AI, have recently changed their tune, noting the real effects of using large language models and tools based on them.

What is very surprising is that young people, i.e. the age group that no longer remembers functioning without GenAI, are increasingly opposed to its presence, as many studies have recently shown. So although the valuations of technology companies are still astronomical, especially when compared to their profits (or lack thereof), criticizing big tech is much more popular today than it was just a few years ago.

This debate does not take place in a political vacuum, so it is not surprising that, apart from very practical issues, such as regulations or their lack, it touches on deeper, ideological issues. And it’s not entirely about “the relationship between technology and power.” Technology is power, and the better and more advanced the technology, the more absolute the power.

This has also been the direction of journalistic criticism of big tech for many years, especially the left-wing one. The power of technology companies is qualitatively no different than the previous power of banks, financial institutions or large industrial conglomerates. Artificial intelligence is simply the next stage of capitalism.