The Brown and White took a stroll around the neighborhood and spoke to community members about their opinions on AI.
Thomas Bochman
South Side Resident Thomas Bochman owns a photography business.
Q: How do you think AI is affecting the South Side of Bethlehem?
TB: It’s inevitable now that it’s showing up next door. Coming from a small business, I used to be a photographer and I did a lot of events at Steel Stacks. Even though AI is still around, these people still make their own products. They still do everything how they were doing back when AI didn’t exist.
I think it does affect a lot of small businesses. I hear a lot of them closing down nowadays because there’s not enough money in it, or because of all this new technology coming like AI. I think there’s ways to work around it as a small business, but it’s definitely affecting (them) for sure.
Q: How do you think it will affect our future?
TB: I feel like AI can be good for the future. Certain things regarding community, I don’t think it’s very valid to be a part of it. I mean, for so many years we lived off of just doing things our way and originally that’s how Americans know how to live— without too much technology.
I feel like the best way we come together as a community is to make sure you go to your local events and you know show support to your local vendors and small businesses. I feel like those things kind of overpower AI. I don’t think it’s gonna get to a point where it’s gonna outlast what people are kind of used to.
Haroon Ahmad
Harmoon Ahmad is a South Side resident
Q: How do you think AI is affecting South Side Bethlehem?
HA: I like AI. It’s helping me write a book. I use AI to organize my thoughts. I’m not creating art or stuff like that using that. I think using it in certain ways is probably fine. I don’t know what cheating is like in high schools and stuff like that in universities. I think there’s detectors for AI, so I think we may be fine.
Q: How do you think it will affect our future?
HA: I think it’s like the car after the horse and buggy. Everyone was worried about the horse and buggy. They wanted to build them out and stuff like that. But I think AI is just part of the future. I do think that in the direction that it’s going it’s fine.
Everyone seems upset about AI. Whatever happens, I hope those people feel better. I think there’s better, bigger fish to fry.
Bryanna Marcelo
South Side Resident Bryanna Marcelo is approaching her one-year work anniversary at Hocaa Bubble Tea
Q: How do you think AI is affecting South Side Bethlehem?
BM: It still kind of blows that (the plans for the Route 22 data center) got accepted. I feel I’ve heard of it happening in New York and other states but the fact that it’s here, it’s really close, like local, is sad. I grew up here and the fact that it’s happening is really disappointing. I know there are a lot of people who are also very mad.
Q: How do you think it will affect our future?
BM: I feel like it’s not going to be good for small businesses. And environment wise, I’m really worried because I know that (global) warming is going to be really bad, especially now, the weather has been all over the place.
Augustin Cavalier
Augustin Cavalier resides in and grew up near Allentown. He also currently works in the IT industry.
Q: How do you think AI is affecting South Side Bethlehem?
AC: I’m very much against AI, for a number of different reasons. I don’t know if you saw the Pope’s Encyclical, but he had some very good thoughts on it, and had very interesting things to say about it. I mean, I think there’s two big options for it. Either it’ll succeed and essentially wreck the economy by destroying jobs, or it’ll fail and wreck the economy because everyone bet the farm on it. And neither of those are very good options.
Q: How do you think it will affect our future?
AC: I have heard there’s some data center projects around here (in Bethlehem). I know we’ve got all the warehouses and everything. It is a very interconnected area, and there’s a lot of high traffic internet lines that run through this region, so it is an ideal place to put data centers and not only just warehouses. So I do know that there’s that going on and that can impact things. But I think in general, the biggest impact is just going to be the one that most communities are seeing where more and more people get their jobs and their lives just sucked into this or get told ‘Oh, this is the future,’ or whatever else.
Comment Policy
Comments posted to The Brown and White website are reviewed by a moderator before being approved. Incendiary speech or harassing language, including comments targeted at individuals, may be deemed unacceptable and not published. Spam and other soliciting will also be declined.
The Brown and White also reserves the right to refuse the publication of entirely anonymous comments.