GoKawiilExtinction-level capitalism a citizen’s thoughts
on AI risk
AI is inherently political technology. If AI works as intended, it will gradually corrode our liberal democracy, risking an irreversible shift into another political and economic configuration. Among AI risks, this one deserves more consideration, because it requires no additional conditions like malign actors or AI malfunction. AI only needs to amplify existing trends, especially around concentration of capital. This damage will occur even assuming that in the near term, AI will broadly improve material well-being.
About MB
I’m a self-employed author, designer, programmer, and lawyer. In 2022, I learned that my own works were in the training datasets of generative-AI companies. In response, I invented the first set of lawsuits challenging the legality of these practices. I’m currently co-counsel for plaintiffs in a number of AI cases. Though I discuss certain legal issues below, I am not your lawyer, and nothing here is held out as legal advice. These are my personal views as a citizen and economic actor; I speak only for myself. This piece is typeset in Equity, Advocate, and Triplicate, fonts I designed. They can be licensed for your own polemics and pamphlets.
Emergent effects
Two billion years ago, the rock layers comprising what is now called the Colorado Plateau began to form: first igneous and metamorphic rocks, followed by many layers of sedimentary rocks. About fifty million years ago, through tectonic action, this plateau gained thousands of feet of elevation. About five million years ago, a river began to flow. The river carried silt and debris, scraping out the beginnings of a canyon. The river deepened the canyon, exposing its walls to weather and erosional forces that widened the canyon further. Today the waterway is the Colorado River. The geological formation is the Grand Canyon.
The formation of the Grand Canyon required zero human agency. Zero technology. Zero coordination among the river, the land, and gravity. In that sense the Grand Canyon is an emergent effect: a complex, unforeseeable output arising from simpler inputs.
But we would never wonder whether the river is sentient. Or whether the river cares about the dirt that it carries out of the canyon. The water is just doing what water does: flowing downhill. The dirt just happens to be in the way.
Inherently political technology
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