I’ve been listening to this video breaking down Mo Gawdat’s “Scary Smart” and honestly I’m terrified for what’s coming. Gawdat, a former Google X exec, argues that superintelligent AI is coming and we need to raise it with the right values. But his solution is individual consciousness and meditation, not collective action.

Meanwhile, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and the rest are locked in a race to the bottom, building more powerful AI systems with zero democratic input. The same corporations that brought us surveillance capitalism, algorithmic management of warehouse workers, and AI tools that displace creative workers are now deciding the future of superintelligence.

The working class — the people who will actually live or die by these systems — have no seat at the table. We’re told to “become more conscious” while boardrooms make existential decisions behind closed doors.

So my question: how do we actually democratize AI development? Or are we just going to sit down and hope for the best while capital gambles with the future of humanity?

  • No, that’s Why Socialism?

    Fun fact, but under capitalism, you don’t really get to vote at all! You are only cleverly lied to and foolishly believe the alternative

    Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

    Every single thing einstein said here has only gotten infinitely worse over time, which should surprise literally nobody who learns that capital accumulates