The rapid introduction of artificial intelligence is making it difficult for people to build resilience to its side effects, leading to a rapid rise in anti-technology extremism, experts have said.
The phenomenon can be found in many parts of the political spectrum, the experts told an event hosted by George Washington University in the US capital on Monday.
Unlike previous waves of extremism driven by eco-fascist, eco-extremist and anarchy groups, perpetrators of recent attacks against technology infrastructure are harder to pin down.
"How long it took for Americans to adopt en masse the automobile, the telephone or the internet, it all kind of pales in comparison to the rapid adoption of AI that we've seen in the last two or three years," said Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, a political science and economics professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.
Mr Veilleux-Lepage, who researches terrorist innovation and the role of emerging technologies in violent extremism, said the potential for significant labour disruption and unemployment, coupled with the language used by technology executives, is leading some to feel isolated, with no recourse but violence.
"It comes from the AI evangelism," he said. "It's the people that are saying, 'This technology is going to be so transformative that it's going to change everything'."
Mr Veilleux-Lepage said this type of message, in which businessmen talk about AI as though it is inevitable and disruptive, can create a sense of desperation in the minds of those most vulnerable to being co-opted by extremism.
"You are inflaming some of the grievances with some of your discourse about these rapid societal changes," he said.
The panel discussion comes amid a string of recent acts of violence directed at Big Tech.
In April, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman before trying to enter and damage the company's headquarters. Investigators say that among the suspect’s possessions was an anti-AI manifesto.
According to the US Department of Justice, one of the motives behind a foiled plan to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House in June was opposition to AI data centres, among other things.
A city council member in Indianapolis, Indiana, has said that his endorsement of a data centre project led to shots being fired at his home.
In the US and Canada, there has been a sharp rise in plots to attack and sabotage 5G towers and other technology infrastructure.
Mauro Lubrano, author of Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism, said anti-technology extremism is not necessarily new, pointing to Ted Kaczynski, a mathematician more widely known as the Unabomber, who bombed various institutions in the US from about 1978 to 1995.
"To be an anti-tech extremist today without dealing with Kaczynski is like being a communist without dealing with Marx," he said during the panel discussion.
Mr Lubrano said that the Unabomber's anti-technology writing once seemed far-fetched, but now appears relevant given the rise of AI.
He said that a younger generation, unfamiliar with the ramifications of Kaczynski's crimes, routinely share quotes attributed to him on social media platforms.
"He's more popular now compared to when he was doing all these terrible things and later arrested," Mr Lubrano added.
Mr Veilleux-Lepage and Mr Lubrano cautioned, however, that it was important not to equate organised opposition to data centres or calls for AI regulatory protection with anti-tech extremism.
"I do believe that those who are negatively affected by progress have all the rights to be involved in shaping it," Mr Lubrano said. He said that listening to concerns instead of dismissing them could mitigate extremism.
Mr Veilleux-Lepage said that far too often, technology executives have wrongly equated regulatory efforts with concessions to anti-technology extremism, and that sort of mentality needs to change.
"Regulation isn't necessarily like concession to grievance," he said. He said many in the technology industry are having the wrong reaction to a recent data centre moratorium announced in the state of New York.
"Temporarily pausing the construction of these data centre facilities while studying and publishing water and environmental studies helps to narrow the accountability gap," Mr Veilleux-Lepage said.
