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atleastoptimal 9 hours ago

I think in general many people at OpenAI believe in AI enabling a prosperous future for all: diseases cured, work being optional due to supply-side deflation enabled by AI automating much of the economy, everyone in the world having access to essentially the best teachers, doctors, etc for mere pennies

However, I believe a lot of this is contingent on "things will be so prosperous we will figure out the hard stuff later". One major thing happening now is the nature of AI enabling better AI is that the improvements and advances concentrate the gains among fewer and fewer people. The AI boom has minted a handful of deca-billionaires, while millions lose their job or can't compete in this winner-takes all world.

Of course universal basic income would be more feasible in a world enhanced by AI productivity, but in the meantime, the trend is "A few people get very very very rich and everyone else enters the lottery of circumstance over whether the chaos caused by AI will land them in a better or worse position."

What evidence do we have that this trend won't continue into this future of "universal prosperity"? Will current OpenAI employees and tech CEOs essentially become permanent dynasties, lording over empires of autonomous robots while the average person gets to share one? (Universal prosperity cannot change the amount of rare-earth minerals on the planet). Of course a space-faring asteroid mining future solves this, but not right away.