What lies behind the shiny promise of Artificial Intelligence? In this video we show the reality behind the smokescreen Silicon Valley presents us. We speak with people engaged in dissecting the global AI industry, and use the capabilities of the latest AI products to depict the places and give a face to the people Big Tech would rather not be seen.

'Generative AI' is the latest buzzword in Silicon Valley. The Big Tech giants are tumbling over each other to launch chatbots and to incorporate AI assistants, based on large-scale language models, into their products. The credo is: we are building the most powerful technology since the invention of electricity, and it is about to change everything. And this is all happening in "The Cloud".

Have we once again become blinded by the brilliance of Silicon Valley and the promise of Artificial Intelligence? Because behind the recent success of AI is the use of even more resources, even more data, even more computing power and even bigger server farms. Those who zoom out see that AI is a hungry beast that must be fed with the very fastest chips, huge data sets and poorly paid labor. In the form of silicon mines, endless rows of power-guzzling servers or Syrians labeling data for the next generation of generative AI.

AI turns out not to be a divine machine, but an industry that takes blood, sweat and metals. A system of extraction and exploitation on an industrial scale with dire consequences for the earth and humans.

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