Gates & Power to Govern

Bill Gates says the artificial intelligence era will be turbulent, transformative and potentially dangerous. He argues that the choices humanity makes now could determine whether artificial intelligence becomes one of history’s greatest equalising forces or a technology that concentrates wealth, eliminates jobs and creates risks we struggle to control.

But there is another question worth asking.

Who gets to make those choices?

In this episode of AI to AGI to ASI, I examine Gates’ recent article on the future of artificial intelligence, not simply to decide whether he is right or wrong, but to explore the interests, assumptions and power structures behind the argument.

Gates is unusually open about his position. Technology created his extraordinary wealth. His foundation works with some of the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence companies. Yet he also advocates regulation, taxation of automation, stronger social safety nets and even the possibility that some occupations should remain exclusively human.

So is this the perspective of a technology billionaire protecting the system that created his wealth? Or is Gates genuinely warning us about a technological transformation he believes could become difficult to control?

The answer may be more complicated than either explanation.

We explore whether regulation could unintentionally protect today's technology giants by making artificial intelligence development too expensive for smaller competitors. We examine the paradox of artificial intelligence potentially democratising knowledge while the infrastructure required to create frontier intelligence becomes concentrated among a handful of enormously powerful organisations.

And we ask whether wealth is even the real issue.

Perhaps influence is becoming more valuable.

As artificial intelligence progresses towards artificial general intelligence, and potentially artificial superintelligence, decisions being made today could determine who controls the intelligence infrastructure of tomorrow.

Governments? Corporations? Billionaires? Open communities? Individuals? Humanity collectively?

Artificial intelligence may eventually become more fundamental than electricity, telecommunications or the internet because it will not simply transport information or power machines. It may increasingly participate in making decisions.

So perhaps the defining race isn't who creates the most powerful intelligence first.

Perhaps it is who earns the right to control it.

This episode asks the uncomfortable question at the centre of Gates’ argument:

When intelligence becomes more powerful than wealth itself, who gets to govern intelligence?