“When the AI bubble bursts, humans will finally get a chance to take back control,” says the title of Rafael Behar’s article (December 23). I think it’s more likely that when the AI bubble bursts, the creators of the crisis, along with other wealthy economic actors, will be in the room with the politicians and tell them how to somehow “save” us all by transferring wealth from average citizens to the already extremely wealthy. Just like they did during the 2008 financial crisis.
We have to be ready with alternative plans. For example, world governments could coordinate to buy at reasonably low prices the majority of shares of any failed tech company that actually produces something useful, ensuring that those shares come with full voting rights.
Governments, acting as majority shareholders, could then direct these monopolies to break themselves up into national companies, pay local rates of taxation in the same country for all their activities, and abide by all local content and copyright laws.
Governments can spend money on infrastructure and salaries in any area of these companies that is actually useful and sell shares for a profit when they start making money again.
That’s just a thought. Another might be that we shut them all down and save our electricity and water for humans, and close or refuse to build datacenters. We must generate lots of ideas so that, when the time comes, no one can say that there is “no alternative” to the plans that will be proposed behind closed doors by the super-rich and then presented to the rest of us as a destiny.
It needs to be immediately clear to anyone considering this matter that there are many possible plans that do not simply transfer more wealth to the super-rich.
Anja Craden
edinburgh
Rafael Behr is right to be concerned about the rapid development of AI, but he is suggesting that we all wait until the bubble bursts before taking any action to control it. Apart from the potentially devastating impact on jobs, the issues raised by an article you published earlier this month (‘It’s going too fast’: the inside story of the race to create the ultimate AI, 1 December) mean that we cannot assume that we will get a chance.
In the near future, AI will certainly be able to thwart attempts to shut it down or redirect it, and by then it will be too late. Insiders are already worrying that AI could herald the end of the road for humanity, and we must start the fight to control it now, before it starts controlling us.
mike scott
nottingham
Reading Rafael Behr’s article on AI reminded me of a short story by American writer Frederick Brown. Scientists create a supercomputer and ask it the ultimate question: “Is there a God? The computer thinks and answers: “There is.” Presentation Science Fiction or What?
gerry rees
worcester
