[movpasd]

This article puts into words a lot of things that had been on my mind as missing in AI discourse. Most significantly, actually considering the _systemic consequences_ of the promised AI future, how it interacts with political economy, an actual critical look (instead of accepting the "Western meta-narrative of modernity" at face value).

And maybe more importantly, it articulates really clearly how damaging the restructuring of the economy by AI moguls and the tightening of the capital–political feedback loop can be, even (maybe _especially_) if the returns of AI do not materialise as promised.

There is plenty of disorganised diffuse anti-AI sentiment. If intellectuals are able to get together behind a common cause, there might be a political movement in the making.

[nearbuy]

I'm not sure why we have had such different experiences, but I feel like people have been saying those things repeatedly.

[moneycantbuy]

Let's do it.

What policies to propose?

[sambuccid]

There are at least 4 in the article:

> The interventions that could matter are known. Public ownership stakes in AI infrastructure. Aggressive antitrust enforcement. A genuine tax regime on automated labor. Branko Milanovic’s prescription is characteristically direct: spread capital ownership more widely, tax the highest capital incomes more aggressively

[movpasd]

I think the foundational one is for Western governments to treat critical digital infrastructure for what it is: critical infrastructure.

We don't let private capital build nuclear powerplants willy nilly. Energy markets are regulated, key materials are subject to control.

It's not a perfect analogy, there's no fissile uranium to build physical guardrails around with critical technology. But the point is that Big Tech lives more or less in its own world insulated from regulatory and political oversight, and governments have been scared to intervene (lest the big GDP-making machine stop laying golden eggs).

Getting to specifics, windfall taxes and capital gains taxes are on the table. Next step up is mandatory reporting and interoperability. Then there's public–private partnership and public stakes in AI technology.

Strategically, the point is less that these policies are all actively required today. You don't want to over-anticipate, over-regulate, and thus destroy the potential of the technology (or, more destructively, hand the initiative over to undemocratic countries). It's more to get the Overton window moving a bit so our governments don't get caught with their trousers down. Tech must not be untouchable, that applies no matter what level of disruption AI ends up causing.

[rzmmm]

Let's start with laws which mandates that copyleft in LLM inputs transfer to LLM outputs

[bombcar]

If AI results in the abolishment of the copyright regime as we know it, at least some good will come from the wreckage of society.