AI can’t transform society- powerful interests block

(Thomas is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers software development, DevOps, computer security, and more for The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/openai_ceo_agi/)

Emily Bender, a professor in the Department of Linguistics and the director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory at the University of Washington in the US, analyzed Altman's post thus on Twitter: "From the get-go this is just gross," she wrote. "They think they are really in the business of developing/shaping 'AGI.' And they think they are positioned to decide what 'benefits all of humanity.'" Here's a thought experiment: imagine an AGI system that advises taxing billionaires at a rate of 95 percent and redistributing their wealth for the benefit of humanity. Will it ever be hooked into the banking system to effect its recommended changes? No, it will not. Will those minding the AGI actually carry out those orders? Again, no. No one with wealth and power is going to cede authority to software, or allow it to take away even some of their wealth and power, no matter how "smart" it is. No VIP wants AGI dictating their diminishment. And any AGI that gives primarily the powerful and wealthy more power and wealth, or maintains the status quo, is not quite what we'd describe as a technology that, as OpenAI puts it, benefits all of humanity.