We’re being told that an earth-shaking, transformative age of “generative artificial intelligence” is already upon us.

We’re told not to worry though, just accept it, because an elite clique of über-smart, über-rich tech barons have our backs. These Big Thinking Visionaries, we’re told, are already devising plans to shape humanity’s new future.

But wait – who’s telling us all this? Why the barons themselves! Yes, the same self-enriching Silicon Valley hucksters who have unleashed this invasive digital force on our world, now say they are planning to “save humanity.” How? By remaking our economy, laws, social systems, etc. to fit their new AI structure World Order.

Excuse me, but have any of those barons asked if you want to go there? I’ve not been consulted by them, have you? When did We The People elect such egomaniacal, anti-social, profiteering billionaires as Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Altman, and Huang to decide humanity’s future? If you want to see their idea of a technocratic social order, visit one of Bezos’ hellish Amazon warehouses that has made him so royally rich. Or ask locals how Elon rampages autocratically over their communities, resources, homes, and rights.

No need to imagine what autocracy they might impose over us – just note that the trillion-dollar tech empires they already run routinely assert corporate property rights over all human rights, and how their lobbyists routinely rush to outlaw any public interference with the rapid spread of AI’s economic, environmental, and social greed.

These billionaire geniuses don’t want to save us from AI dominance, they’re trying to stampede us into their “kakistocracy.” What’s that? Government by the very worst people in society.

Do something!

To keep fighting Big Tech, check out the Athena Coalition, an organization of dozens of local and national groups who are “coming together to create an economy where everyone can thrive, safeguard our planet, and protect our democracy.” We can get with that! athenaforall.org

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You probably won’t believe this, boys and girls, but there was a time when government regulatory officials believed it was their public duty to – get this – serve the public!

How? By enforcing laws intended to protect consumers, workers, the environment and other targets of raw corporate greed. Today, though, far-right plutocrats behind Trump’s Project 2025 have turned our national protection agencies into private escort services for corporate predators.

Consider the monopolistic airline giants that have made price gouging and passenger abuse their normal business practice. It got so bad the Transportation Department finally mandated a handful of minimal reforms a few years ago. How minimal? The rules included such basic stuff as requiring airlines to tell customers the actual price of their ticket up front – no hidden fees. And requiring airlines to compensate customers if corporate mismanagement causes their flight to be disrupted. Also, making airlines liable for damages they do to wheelchairs of disabled passengers.

Any honest business would already be doing such things as a matter of personal integrity, but Sean Duffy has now screeches that corporate integrity is none of the public’s business. Who is Duffy? A run-of-the-mill laissez-faire extremist, former Republican Congressman, MTV reality show personality – and former Washington lobbyist for a firm representing the Big Three Airlines!

He’s now ensconced as Transportation Secretary in Trump’s cabinet, where he is pushing a sweeping agenda to repeal consumer protections. His agenda reads like a wish list put forth by the airline executives he had lobbied for. If this seems like profiteering corporate elites are making public rules to serve their own selfishness… Bingo! To keep tabs on their corporate thievery, go to TheRevolvingDoorProject.org.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

When corporations try to bamboozle us commoners, they fire three levels of deceit at us. First comes their basic lies… then they escalate to a barrage of damn lies… and finally they resort to their nuclear option: A PR campaign.

The high-tech profiteers of artificial intelligence and political enablers are now going nuclear. Grassroots Americans didn’t swallow Silicon Valley’s opening deceit that AI data centers would be a bonanza for local communities. And when the billionaires escalated their land-water-and-power grab by assailing opponents as luddites and political extremists, people of all political stripes erupted in open rebellion against the self-serving arrogance of Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and other tone-deaf AI autocrats.

So now comes their PR onslaught. AI’s moneyed powers—desperate to control government policy, the media message and then public debate—are now dumping untold billions into mass market propaganda, portraying AI as somewhere between benignly beneficial and endearingly human.

Multitrillion-dollar tech goliath Google, for example, is producing movies and streaming a series of microdramas depicting AI generally (and Google specifically) as a source of loving comfort and human connection in an alien future. And, gosh, not only do their novellas tell sweet tales of artificial love as though it’s real, but Google’s technology allows viewers to “interact” with the AI movie characters.

Google’s maestros of deceit assure us that the intent of their recent rush of movies about AI is merely to tell the story about this dazzling technology “authentically.” Authentic? I was born at night, but not last night! A trillion-dollar profiteering behemoth peddling the razzle-dazzle robotic future is hardly to be trusted as an unbiased source. Google’s movies are pure PR propaganda trying to authenticate its own profiteering scheme.

Do something!

Hate how artificial intelligence is being wielded in the creative arts? Check out the Human Artistry Campaign, a coalition of ~200 unions and artist organizations who are working to make sure technology never replaces human expression and creativity.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

What’s wrong with us? Our nation’s moral compass, I mean.

I don’t like being a downer, just focusing on wrongs, but some wrongs stand out as morally abominable, such as this one. It’s about hundreds of thousands of our low-income elders who, toward the end of life (when frail and most vulnerable) find themselves cast into a part of the Medicaid system that has been deliberately structured by Congress to subject them to needless deprivations and daily indignities.

These are our loved ones with serious health problems who need long term care in nursing homes, and two-thirds of them rely on Medicaid to cover their costs. To get this benefit, they surrender all of their income, which goes to defray their nursing home expenses. Of course, for a decent existence beyond mere survival, we all rely on a few little things that are basic to our humanity. So, Medicaid authorizes each state to set a monthly “personal needs allowance,” so their elderly patients can cover hygiene and grooming products, a book or CD, a small gift for grandchildren, a chocolate bar, etc.

Good! But then Mr. Mingy walked in. In 1987, Congress set the minimum for this allowance at a meager $30 a month – under $8 a week! Congress has not raised it in the decades since, and most states still provide only a pittance, despite inflation and monopoly price gouging on practically everything. So, our state and national “leaders” (who freely dole out massive corporate subsidies and tax giveaways to billionaires) are leaving ill seniors with so little spending money that they must ration their toothpaste and scrimp pennies to buy a rare treat from the vending machine.

I know this is small in the global scale of human indignities, but that makes it an even bigger moral failure for our society. It would take so little to do so much for so many.

Do something!

* There are 2 bills sitting in the Energy and Commerce committee in Congress right now: H.R.5685, sponsored by Rep Gwen Moore, and H.R.7778, sponsored by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. If you’ve got a representative on the committee—hello, AOC and longtime friend of the Lowdown Jan Schakowsky— call as a constituent and find out what’s going on with these bills.

* Want to fight poverty in senior communities, and get support/ideas/resources if you’re in need? Check out Justice in Aging!

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.