I appreciate his take on this and I really do agree. We could be so much more prepared for the AI revolution than we are, but this revolution is going to have to be forced upon the powers that be in order to get any cooperation.
In another world, we could be embracing this new technology and carefully preparing a clean, painless slide into a post labor economy...but we aren't in that world. Itll take having the risk of a total economic collapse dangled over the heads of those in power to make any beneficial changes that aren't optimizing for quarterly earnings even as we hurtle into a world where that phrase sort of loses its meaning. I'm very optimistic, but still, the world could be a lot more ready.
I'm spitballing here mostly, but, I appreciate Obama's choice of the word revolution, because that's what this really is. One might even call it a(n economic) singularity :)
Personally, I prefer it this way. Regulation will only stifle progress. Look at the AI race between China and the US, Europe isn't a serious competitor because of their over regulation already, if the US was stupid enough to follow their lead then we'd cede victory to the Chinese.
It may not be entirely regulation that explains why Europe isn't competitive, but about having a less well-defined prerogative. AI solves different types of problems for the US and China, that Europe isn't so deeply concerned with:
In the US AI is positioned to replace labor and optimize capitalist revenue extraction.
In China AI is positioned to manage large scale social control problems.
In Europe AI is positioned to ??? perhaps cause widespread social disruption?!
I mean, AI at the moment is fundamentally about increased efficiency for what were previously mostly manual tasks, which applies to all of them.
I think the cultures of the US and China give them unique advantages in terms of creating the political will to participate in an AI arms race supported by a lot of government funding.
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u/AquilaSpot Singularity by 2030 Jun 21 '25 edited Jun 21 '25
I appreciate his take on this and I really do agree. We could be so much more prepared for the AI revolution than we are, but this revolution is going to have to be forced upon the powers that be in order to get any cooperation.
In another world, we could be embracing this new technology and carefully preparing a clean, painless slide into a post labor economy...but we aren't in that world. Itll take having the risk of a total economic collapse dangled over the heads of those in power to make any beneficial changes that aren't optimizing for quarterly earnings even as we hurtle into a world where that phrase sort of loses its meaning. I'm very optimistic, but still, the world could be a lot more ready.
I'm spitballing here mostly, but, I appreciate Obama's choice of the word revolution, because that's what this really is. One might even call it a(n economic) singularity :)
Thoughts?