AI, ‘Populism’ and the Centibillionaire Shangri-La

A few days ago, I was looking at one of several recent (after-hours) polls that show an increasingly somber mood toward the Republican Party and favorable signs for Democrats. There was something else in these polls that surprised me: people are really, Really on AI. Now, to be clear, this is somewhat of a cardinal assumption that almost borders on a bias in the world I live in: a fairly educated, generally left-leaning world. Everyone is depressed about AI in different ways in this world and for many good reasons, although many also integrate AI into some aspects of their professional lives. (This is a pervasive dichotomy: We are generally skeptical of AI; AI also allows our programmers to be much more productive.) What struck me, however, was the extent of the skepticism or hostility. It depends on demographics, age and political beliefs.

There are many good reasons for this. The explosion of investment in AI presents various short- and long-term environmental dangers; it might…well, take away your (depressed) job; it drives up the prices of energy, ubiquitous elements of the modern economy like computer memory; and… oh, there’s one thing that even the biggest champions of AI talk about and are strangely fascinated by… the non-trivial chance that AI could lead to the extermination of the human race (that’s a shame!). It’s the list of horrors that leaves many of us wondering what the hell are we doing here?