Ramble: GenAI and the myth of "democratization"
February 16, 2026

What really annoys me is the ongoing narrative that AI "democratizes" things.

Art, knowledge, making, this, that... you name it, techbros will claim AI "democratizes" it.

...no.

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Just no.

Let's take art, for example.

Imagine you are somewhere in the middle of a forest. Nobody around, and your phone is dead.

Well, you can look for a pointy rock, and carve something into a piece of wood. Or you can clear a spot of sticks and stones, and draw something into the soil. Maybe you are lucky enough to find some clay, and can use it to shape something out of it. Or you can use some twigs and long strands of grass or something to create something.

Except, that wasn't just art, as it turns out, but also making - you can make whatever you want - today, ten years ago, a hundred years ago, one thousand, ten thousand... and you better believe they didn't have AI back then.

Knowledge... okay, granted: Some jerks always try to gatekeep knowledge.
Whether it's with a literal paywall, good old elitism, or just being an asshole to anyone asking, telling them to "use the search" or "read the wiki".
However... AI doesn't really help there - not really, not consistently, not reliably.
Yes, you can ask them something, and they give a response of sorts - sometimes, it will even be correct - but the problem is that they hallucinate all the time, and introduce anywhere between mild inaccuracies to false data that can be downright dangerous.
And the problem there is: A layman cannot possibly know when that happens, because they don't have the knowledge to know something is weird, and because the AI does not have the smarts to factcheck itself. Sure, you can just ask it if what it said earlier is true, or ask a second AI for confirmation, but when we just circle back around to the possibility of hallucination.
AI - at least generic ones like Gemini and ChatGPT - does not democratize knowledge. It is not the right tool for the job.

A specially-trained specialist model that has been designed from the ground up to always produce truthful answers from a bespoke dataset would be helpful within the one area of its experise, but those would never materialize themselves into Notepad, Google or Whatsapp and be available for free.

With some luck, someone would set up expert-vetted models, and generously make them available for free (in exchange for occasionally asking for donations), but... realistically, those would likely be tied to some form of paywall themselves, because those models would cost electricity - and therefore, money - to run.

The internet can, however - it is kind of what it was built for, and why sites like Wikipedia and other wikis exist.
The only problem is that - as previously mentioned - some people are dicks, and someone needs to tell them that shutting the fuck up is free.
Oh, "it's on the wiki"? Maybe give them an excerpt that answers their question, or link to the relevant page, and ask them if there is a part they need help with instead of just telling them that "it's on the wiki".
"Use the search"? Good idea - but maybe their search-fu is lacking, so help them out, do the search yourself and link to the answer... and, again, offer assistance. Maybe they already found it, but they are stuck at a step akin to "Draw the rest of the owl", or something that might sound like a line out of Star Trek to a layperson.

If you don't want to help others, the best way to do so without poisoning the well is to shut the fuck up. And don't come at me with the "teach a man how to fish" thing, because that's not what you're doing - you don't teach a person how to fish by telling them to read the sheet of toilet paper that came with their fishing rod, or shaking a magic 8-ball while asking it yes-or-no questions.

AI doesn't democratize jackshit, it just gives assholes another tool to be an asshole to others.

If you really want something to be democratized, then be kind to others. Share your knowledge willingly, one way or another - if helping people directly is not your thing, then contribute to a wiki, make a tutorial, or find some other way to pass your knowledge on to others.
Make tools available, create new ones, and *actually* make them available - for free to anyone, ideally.
But also materials, and aids - for proper democratization to take place, people must also be able to use what they need, both in the sense of having access to it, but also in having the facility to use it, for example with prosthetics or medication.
It requires the removal of barriers, not referring people to some blob created by scraping the internet that churns out response-shaped noise. 

...but no, let's all just follow the new AI messiah instead, and call anyone who doesn't believe in its magical thneed-like ability to answer mankind's each and every need, or points out its many issues - practical, ethical, environmental - a blasphemist that wants to abolish democracy.