4 ms·
Money always wins. There’s a sort of irresistible momentum that happens when enough money pools together, and no person can resist it. You see it with apple’s
by Joeri 2y ago
Money always wins.
There’s a sort of irresistible momentum that happens when enough money pools together, and no person can resist it. You see it with apple’s customer-hostile app store policies that are a result of the money being too good, and now with OpenAI.
I wonder how this problem ever gets solved at the level of society. Enough money pooling together always wins out over public interest.
- idle_zealot 2y agoIsn't that basically what antitrust is supposed to solve?
- kn0where 2y agoAnd it works when leaders aren’t completely bought and paid for.
- keiferski 2y agoAI is pretty much the culmination of technocapital, so frankly the idea that a nonprofit without deep government support would be the leading AI company is a little unrealistic in the first place. Especially considering the heavy capital requirements to even make this stuff functional in the first place. I think you’d need a government organization on the level of Manhattan Project to really compete, but unfortunately there don’t seem to be many Robert Oppenheimers and Vannevar Bushes working in the public sector anymore.
- trilbyglens 2y agoNone of those people were in the public sector until the project was created and drew them in. But I agree, leaving this work up to shit eating PE firms and smarmy VC bros is asking for disaster.
- keiferski 2y agoThat’s a good point, you’d really need a massive government project to be started first in order to draw away the talent. Hopefully that becomes possible without a looming war as impetus…
- redwoolf 2y agoThe public has no stomach for collective action anymore. All for one and one for all? Nah, man, what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine.
- keiferski 2y agoAgreed but historically at least this came from a strong executive, not from collective action. FDR, for example.
- dTal 2y agoGovernment is the avatar of collective action. People vote for and otherwise tolerate a strong executive when they believe in "all for one and one for all". FDR was elected by a landslide on a platform of heavy government interventionism to address the Great Depression.
- redwoolf 2y agoTotally agree. I think with the suburban explosion and rise of the personal automobile we’ve seen individualism trump collectivism. I don’t think we’ll ever see a new deal or social security like initiative in America until the power structures in our society are changed fundamentally.
- paulddraper 2y agoWhat specifically is the problem you are looking to solve?