A point I've made on here before is the big near-term risk from AI is not general-purpose artificial intelligence. It's machine learning systems that do a better job of making corporate decisions than humans. Corporations are shareholder value maximizers. There's a powerful school of thought, the Chicago School, which claims that's all they should be, and have no other responsibilities.
Machine learning systems are really good at maximizing some defined criterion. It's quite possible that they might get good at making corporate decisions. They already do that for some investment funds.
Once machine learning systems are better at corporate decision making than humans, market forces will demand they be put in charge. The companies with inferior human-based technology will start to lose out. That's implicit in the forces behind capitalism.
Be afraid, CEOs. Be very afraid. The machines are coming to take your job.
The logic goes that organizations, in general, should focus on what they are good at, while the government should pass regulation to incentivize socially good behaviors.
What we need to work on is having a stronger government that's less influenced (monetarily) by corporations, to set boundaries, set incentives, and police corporations to good behavior.
To be honest, we often highlight all the places this goes wrong, but all the industries that don't get a lot of press are good examples of this working well.
Be afraid, humanity. All that stands between humanity and the short-term exploitation in unregulated niches where there are long-term negative externalities is human oversight with its pesky feelings.
Machine learning systems are really good at maximizing some defined criterion. It's quite possible that they might get good at making corporate decisions. They already do that for some investment funds.
Once machine learning systems are better at corporate decision making than humans, market forces will demand they be put in charge. The companies with inferior human-based technology will start to lose out. That's implicit in the forces behind capitalism.
Be afraid, CEOs. Be very afraid. The machines are coming to take your job.
(Somebody should turn this into a TED talk.)