About a week ago I launched a poll on the fediverse to gauge interest in a company that produces technology without the use of "AI"*.
"OK, so let's say me and some friends started a tech company/consultancy that refused to use "AI", would this encourage you choose us over others?
(boosts welcome)"
The results were surprising. First off, it's easily the most boosted toot I've ever crafted. Secondly the results are incredibly asymmetric. Third, the comments were overwhelmingly helpful and encouraging.
Popularity
This toot was boosted 215 times. I know that doesn't sound like a lot from a traditional social media perspective, but it's significant in the fediverse, especially if you consider that it's not a meme, photo of a cute animal or a snarky joke. It's topical for sure but it also requires a little thought, and in my experience that's not the sort of thing that gets a wide-range of attention.
Results
I expected there to be more support for a company that rejects AI in the fediverse than there may be in other social networks, but I didn't expect it to be so extremely lopsided. 60-40 would have been expected, 92-8? Wow.
Comments
There were a handful of confusing-to-disparaging remarks but nothing like what I normally experience from botlickers elsewhere. Most of the comments were overwhelmingly supportive, and several commentators were ready to sign-up!
"I think that "No AI here!" companies are actually a hot, hot thing now. Especially for medical devices or airplanes / flight control. If someone is doing that and is supportive of remote work for software, let me know: I would like to work at such a place. (Preferably if we're making highly reliable insulin-related products.) #getfedihired" - @phf@mastodon.de
There were a number of comments concerned with bias, given that the people of the fediverse may be more sympathetic toward resistance to "AI". I don't see this as a problem, because I would be perfectly happy to serve such a subset of humanity (most of the joy in my life has come at times when I had a say in who I make things for).
Given the strong emotions (and money) involved this subject I was definitely expecting some harsher responses, even if I anticipated the reactions to be mostly positive.
What's Next?
I subscribe to the 1000 True Fans theory and if nothing else the results of this poll prove that there's at least close to 1000 people out there who want to get their technology from people who refuse to use "AI" to make it. That to me is very encouraging, because it at least hints at the possibility of being able to survive being a person who makes things this way.
Figuring out exactly what to make might be the next step, and I think it would be fun to do that in a similarly democratic fashion. What comes to mind immediately is a Ranked-Choice poll listing a number of fixed choices (maybe all software, maybe other tech.?), or maybe make it completely open-ended (although I'd have to somehow limit that to things I know I can assemble a team to make). In either case I'd like a community to decide on what we tackle and what the priority is instead of making all these decisions ourselves.
Once it's know what technology is needed it will be easier to assemble a team to make it, although I don't want to completely commit to that sort of logic. For me the highest priority is philosophical alignment because the rest of the needful things can be taught.
Jason J. Gullickson, 2026