Comment posted by Wantoknow

The whole idea that AI can be made safe by monopolizing a few players is the height of nonsense.  A few players with extremely capable AI are themselves as dangerous as the AI themselves and more so because they have the means for monopolizing power which have been developed over thousands of years of human scheming.

AI is the gunpowder revolution of the 21st century and the big players not only make the guns and powder but want to assure they keep it for themselves.  Restriction of product access is the essence of monopoly whether that be a monopoly of political power or commercial power.  In this day and age the two are hopelessly intertwined.

These companies must be subject to thorough going competition because competition is to the benefit of the public and never the companies.  No businessman worth his salt will ever be for competition except as a pretense.

Competition is a noose around a company’s neck. It restrains the growth of a company by turning that growth into new companies instead of boosting the growth of the old one.  This new competition offers new products, obsoletes old ones and restricts profit growth.  It threatens existence itself.  The public does not care who they buy from but the companies very much care that the public buys from them.

For Trump it is the same.  The country that wins the AI race, wins everything.  He is as much for monopoly as any of these companies.  He wants a US monopoly and conceives it as a race to be won. His ambition is to cut out China completely from AI development.

For the AI companies the problem is that China has no incentive to agree to share the market with the US and create a world monopoly given Trump’s attitude.  Still, one begins somewhere and cornering the US market for AI is a worthy start.

The great joke on the public is that there is no defense from AI tyranny but competition.  The internet will be policed by AI.  Can people crawl down wires and squeeze through transistors looking for miscreants?  Of course not.  But giving the AI police over to a transcendent monopoly, government-private cartel, is to give over the internet to them too and without recourse.

The world they want you to fear is the world they want to build.  It is their AI on their leash that will terrorize the public suitably clothed in a benign appearing mask.  Don’t let it happen.  Centralization is the royal road to power and always has been. Don’t let them take it.

Here is a prediction.  In 10 years they will all be gone without a monopoly.  The have misspent on data centers and other technology that will be superseded.  Their financial commitments will destroy them as the technology moves beyond them.  Open source is the clear wave of the future and it is a noose about their necks.  Let them be squeezed for their presumption and temerity and your freedom.

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https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/ai-leaders-cunning-plan-exposed