Kultureller Raubbau im Digitalen Kapitalismus: Plädoyer für eine KI-Abgabe

This article discusses the significance of “Large Language Models” and similar AI systems for the process of cultural reproduction. It argues that such systems pose a risk of cultural exploitation. Human language use resembles the cultivation of crops: based on our own purposes and values, (agri-)cultural heritage is utilized and further developed in a critical and selective manner. This selective and creative appropriation and transmission contains an element of intergenerational fairness. However, AI systems cannot evaluate and select cultural data based on their own purposes or values. They lack access to an inner world of their own, a lived practice, or a social community. The technologized appropriation and reproduction of cultural traditions therefore cannot perform critical selection tasks on its own. It shifts this burden onto users or social institutions, for whom dealing with AI-generated “slop” becomes a challenge that is difficult to manage.