> It depends on what is meant by 'ruin', doesn't it? For example, imagine an AI system capable of generating its own capital base via clever investing over time

> It depends on what is meant by 'ruin', doesn't it? For example, imagine an AI system capable of generating its own capital base via clever investing over time. It's plausible that a correctly configured and trained AI system could achieve this goal. Now, what if that same AI also started a new industrial corporation that had no shareholders or and no board of directors? > Now imagine the AI does this in collusion with the employees of this new corporation... > This might cause 'social destabilization' by entirely eliminating the current system of investment capitalism. That particular scenario doesn't ring true to me, because it seems to assume that that "AI systems" that sophisticated could be monopolized by those weird partnerships. I think it's far more likely, in the case of AI, that "the current system of investment capitalism" will have access to better AI systems of better quality than anyone else (except perhaps some militaries), because they the money to access the best resources (both equipment and talent). AGI is most likely not going to be developed by some wizard in a garage, who will then have time to let it incubate and amass power outside of existing structures. Even if some wizard manages the first part, existing power structures will likely get there soon after, following the same prior work.