Name: Anonymous 2026-11-12 18:33
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project, is strongly critical of modern generative AI.
His opposition centers on both philosophical and software-freedom concerns:
- "Pretend Intelligence" and "Bullshit Generators": Stallman rejects the term "Artificial Intelligence" for tools like ChatGPT. He argues that true intelligence requires knowledge and understanding, whereas large language models merely generate plausible-sounding text with total indifference to the truth. In speeches and essays, he has urged people to call them "Pretend Intelligence" (PI) or "bullshit generators" instead.
- Threat to Software Freedom (SaaSS): Stallman views cloud-hosted generative AI as a severe form of Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS). Because users typically cannot obtain the source code, training data, or even a local executable—and must instead send their prompts to a third-party server—he argues that using these tools completely surrenders user control and computing freedom.
- Unreliability and Harm: He emphasizes that because generative systems have no grasp of meaning or facts, they fabricate information effortlessly. He warns that calling these systems "intelligent" misleads the public into trusting outputs that cannot be verified or relied upon.
His opposition centers on both philosophical and software-freedom concerns:
- "Pretend Intelligence" and "Bullshit Generators": Stallman rejects the term "Artificial Intelligence" for tools like ChatGPT. He argues that true intelligence requires knowledge and understanding, whereas large language models merely generate plausible-sounding text with total indifference to the truth. In speeches and essays, he has urged people to call them "Pretend Intelligence" (PI) or "bullshit generators" instead.
- Threat to Software Freedom (SaaSS): Stallman views cloud-hosted generative AI as a severe form of Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS). Because users typically cannot obtain the source code, training data, or even a local executable—and must instead send their prompts to a third-party server—he argues that using these tools completely surrenders user control and computing freedom.
- Unreliability and Harm: He emphasizes that because generative systems have no grasp of meaning or facts, they fabricate information effortlessly. He warns that calling these systems "intelligent" misleads the public into trusting outputs that cannot be verified or relied upon.