\n<\/p>\n
Buy The Intercessor<\/em> paperback or ebook from Amazon<\/a>, Barnes & Noble<\/a>, Bookshop.org<\/a>, or Ingram<\/a>! <\/strong> <\/p>\n You probably heard that Elon Musk sued Sam Altman and his company<\/strong>, OpenAI, for profiting excessively from what was created as a not-for-profit enterprise. The remedy sought by the world\u2019s richest person? Take a breath to avoid overdosing on irony: $150 billion. Matteo Wong wrote a nice snapshot of this fiasco in The Atlantic<\/em><\/a>. It took the jury less than two hours to return a unanimous verdict, which didn\u2019t offer a clear judgment of OpenAI\u2019s conduct, because the case was rejected on technical grounds. Musk\u2014despite having complained about Altman and OpenAI for years\u2014waited until the statue of limitations had run out to file his claim. <\/p>\n The trial offered an interesting opportunity to see two exceedingly rich and powerful figures behave with childish stupidity<\/strong>. My guess is that when you are surrounded by yes-men and possess a pot of money larger than the gross domestic product of more than 80 percent of the world\u2019s nations, any brake that may once have constrained your public idiocy has long disappeared. Your mouth becomes a runaway car. <\/p>\n It beggars imagination that this spectacle unfolded while the also obscenely rich and stupid putative president of the United States was negotiating with himself<\/a><\/strong> to steal a $1.776 billion slush fund from U.S. taxpayers to fill a kitty intended to pay off insurrectionists, grifters, and enemies of democracy of his choosing. Trump is fond of boasting that the magnitude and impact of his actions is unprecedented, especially when they are not (remember the \u201calternative facts\u201d<\/a> that boosted the scale of his first inauguration?). The only time that description can be accurately applied is when discussing the magnitude of his grift at the expense of our commonwealth and wellbeing. Here\u2019s a corruption tracker<\/a> from the House Oversight Democrats. Watch the numbers tick up as you contemplate the fact that Trump\u2019s \u201csettlement\u201d from the IRS also includes immunity in perpetuity for his family from audits and oversight. <\/p>\n I was thinking about all this a few days ago as my husband and I watched an excellent documentary on AI<\/strong>. You can rent The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist<\/em><\/a> online, see it for free if you have a Peacock subscription, or catch it in a theater. I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n The frame of the film is a father-to-be (filmmaker Daniel Roher) facing his fears about bringing a child into a world<\/strong> in peril from the corporate greed driving the race to develop and profit from AGI (artificial general intelligence, which essentially means achieving a level of artificial intelligence that equals or surpasses human capabilities). Half the people interviewed in the film are alarmed at the extent to which these entrepreneurs will go to jump over guardrails and ignore safety. Some of the most knowledgeable and experienced among them predict the end of humanity, as these human creations become autonomous and choose their own survival as the highest good rather than the survival and prospering of organic life on earth. <\/p>\n The other half comprises AGI developers, including Sam Altman<\/strong> (Musk signed up to be interviewed for the film, but blew off the appointment). They paint a technicolor picture of the promise of AI that to them clearly outweighs its perils. Watching the film, I kept asking myself how it is that so many have come to entrust our future to these self-loving, self-serving men who are either admitted eugenicists or indifferent by nature to the existence and value of those who don\u2019t serve them. Musk, for instance, has been explicit in his belief that it would be fine if a great many people he considers NPCs (non-player characters, those without the capacity for independent thought or action) would die off to leave the planet (indeed, the whole solar system) to the much more deserving ubermenschen<\/em> like him. <\/p>\n So here\u2019s the bind, and it doesn\u2019t only pertain to AI<\/strong>. The most humane, present, aware, and evidently caring interviewees in this film make an obvious point, that to stop these obscenely wealthy and powerful moneymakers from destroying the world, a public interest not driven by greed must be brought to bear. This can be done by those for whom the public interest is a meaningful concept. The European Union\u2019s AI Act<\/a> is an actually existing example of progress in protecting the public interest\u2014not perfect, but a zillion times more than has been even attempted in the U.S. <\/p>\n But not by the MAGA regime<\/strong>. As I write this, Trump has postponed signing the executive order that would have given the federal government oversight<\/a> of new AI models before they could be released. Security vulnerabilities were the focus, not the future of life on earth, but a tiny step is better than no step at all. It\u2019s impossible to know whether the postponement came from Trump\u2019s chumminess and economic ties with the big tech leaders he\u2019d taken to China recently, most of whom oppose any regulation, or from a petty refusal to hold the signing after Silicon Valley CEOs couldn\u2019t make it to DC on short notice in time for the ceremony, sending other executives instead. <\/p>\n Thus the AGI question has hoist us squarely onto the horns of a dilemma that now infuses every part of this nation<\/strong>, its culture and economy and more. From things like the decimation of the Arts and Humanities Endowments and the Kennedy Center to robbing the public purse to build a ballroom and an obscene arch to the horrific war in Iran, the dismantling of voting rights, the end of bodily autonomy in many states, the lack of a strong, vigorous, active and empowered public interest makes it irresistible to compare our national political culture to fascist regimes. When the country is in the grip of villains for whom the common interest is meaningless in comparison with their own greed; when those people have marched through the body politic wielding machetes, destroying the structures, policies, and assurances that formerly protected the public interest\u2014imperfectly, to be sure, but much missed; how can we create the conditions that release their grip on democracy, accountability, truth, and justice?<\/p>\n The AI Doc ends with an answer that\u2019s not a magic bullet, but deeply true<\/strong>: that we must put one foot in front of another and do the work. Don\u2019t obey in advance. Don\u2019t allow discouragement to control us. Don\u2019t believe in the myths of invincibility MAGA generates even as it falls apart. The public interest\u2014the revival of our public sector\u2014has to come first. Too many public officials are cowed or convinced that they have no choice but to go along to get along, or believe that they\u2019ll be able to drink from the MAGA trough if they take a knee and kiss the ring long and hard enough. But some elected officials are working very hard to bring the public interest about, and many more are running for the chance to try. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s the film\u2019s link to sign up<\/a> for information on resources and actions.<\/strong> I just signed up. Why don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n Jimmy Reed, \u201cWe Got to Stick Together<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n