Fears about AI Are Actually Fears about Capitalism

As writer Ted Chiang has observed, "Most fears about A.I. are best understood as fears about capitalism." When we imagine rogue AI systems optimizing the world to death, we are actually describing what many corporations already do. If an organization's ethos is misaligned, any technology platform it creates will amplify that misalignment.

Take a moment to reflect on the organization you hold most dear: Does it have an ethos, or is it drifting without one? Does it fight for human flourishing or against it? Is it creating value or extracting it? Are you shaping its ethos, or is it shaping yours? No matter your formal title, you have influence over this organization. Yet if you cannot answer these questions with confidence, you are not in control. You are a passenger in a vehicle you think you’re driving.

But if nobody is consciously driving, where is the organization going? If the behavior of superorganisms were random, we would see as many evolving toward flourishing as toward corruption. Instead, the vast majority wind up in the same place, with indistinguishable values.

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