One AI

“One ring to rule them all,

One ring to find them,

One ring to bring them all,

And in the darkness bind them.”

This is an apt verse from J. R. R. Tolkien. Substitute “AI” for “ring”, and it takes on the feeling of prescience. I believe the AI race is not for the most useful “Chat” (isn’t that cozy) model for society. Rather, it is a race to build the most powerful AI, one that could be so superior that it could control the technology - I.e. control the others. That’s why our oligarchs are planning to spend $500 BILLION of your and my money (remember those tax cuts?) on developing a super powerful AI.

Yes, it will help them to target their commercials more effectively, and keep the economic “growth” mantra going, but it will also make it harder for true information to be - and remain - on the internet. Once connected, a super AI will be able to “curate” the information that is fed to you. It will be able to “correct” Wikipedia in accordance with oligarchs’ prejudices. And, forget about “Black History Month”, “Juneteenth”, “Asian and Pacific Islanders”, or any celebrations of the immigrants who made this country great. Gradually, persistently, society will be told what information to seek and what to think about it. “Don’t believe what you see. Believe what I tell you.” That’s the promise of AI to the oligarchs.

The sad thing is that Republicans on the Hill think they’re on the winning side. Reality is that they are sheeples, just like the rest of MAGA. When Musk and his team control the Government, our Congress will be irrelevant.