Toppling the Tower of Babel: Anti-AI Boycotts and the Need for a Luddite Ren(AI)ssance

A NYC subway sign reads: "friend: [noun] someone who listens, responds, and supports you." The advertisement is for friend.com, which promotes an AI friend that you can wear as an always-listening pendant around your neck. What draws the eye, however, is not the advertisement but the words "not your" added above the website. Another graffitied friend advertisement reads, "JOIN THE LUDDITE RENAISSANCE." This paper explores anti-AI movements and their raison d'être and considers Luddism as an ethical response to the many dangers of AI. I engage the Hebrew Bible narrative of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, in which humans seek to build a tower to reach the heavens, i.e., the arrogant pursuit of fame and power. In an age of globalization and technological advancement, a careful reading of the text can lead us into important considerations about hubris and progress.