Like so many in America, I watch astounded as generative artificial intelligence (AI) evolved at lighting speed in 2023, performing tasks that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Just last month, a survey found that nearly 40 percent of more than 900 companies were planning to cut jobs in 2024 in part because of AI. If robotics takes a giant leap in the next 12 months, as some suspect, then the survey might end up being too conservative. Generative AI combined with humanoids, which many companies are racing to turn out, is a game changer. Construction jobs, physician jobs, police jobs, and many more will soon be at stake.
Clearly, capitalism is facing a crisis. For years, I have advocated for a Universal Basic Income (UBI), as a way to transition society into the AI age. My method was by leasing out the trillions of dollars worth of empty U.S. federal land to big business, and using some of the proceeds to pay for a basic income for every American. However, any method of a basic income will now help offset the loss of jobs AI will bring.
But recently, chatter about something else is being thrown around in internet chat rooms, in congressional halls, and in arguments at holiday dinner tables: nationalizing AI.
It's a bad idea. For starters, I don't want big government in the innovation business; it already has a hard enough time trying to keep people out of poverty. Right now, 1 in 5 kids in the U.S. is going to bed hungry or malnourished at night, and America's homeless problem is the worst it's been in my 50 year lifetime.
After all the benefits capitalism has brought us and the world over the last century, we owe something to it. And that thing we owe is to stay the course trusting it and free markets, which means letting innovators get their spoils. I agree it's not fair U.S. billionaires hold over 50 percent of the wealth of America. But to take their companies, patents, and creations away to even the scales of justice is not the answer. If we should do anything with billionaires, it's high time to raise their taxes to help them contribute to a UBI.
But the final and perhaps most important reason we should drop the idea of nationalizing AI is due to geopolitical reasons. We need our best and most innovative companies and inventors leading the AI revolution forward, so that China, Russia, and other potential adversaries don't get ahead of us.
Nearly 10 years ago, I discussed the concept of the AI Imperative, drawing out why it was critical that the best AI remains in the hands of democracies, and not autocracies or dictatorships. Should we ever need to go toe to toe with another country's AI—either on the battlefield or in hacking challenges—we better have the best AI capabilities on hand. Otherwise, another country may sabotage or even shut down our AIs with a virus or other software hacks.
As someone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and has many tech friends in Silicon Valley, if we take away the incentive for our AI tech companies to innovate, then we'll be more like our international adversaries who have a history of stunting scientists and their research in the name of authoritarian agendas. America has given its inventors and companies precious freedom and rewards to lead the way forward, and that's why this country for two centuries has born many of the most important inventions for humanity. The ability to change the world—and strike it rich at the same time—are at the very core of the American Dream. And while fewer and fewer Americans seem to be able to reach that dream, it's still the cornerstone of why we are one of the leading innovation nations in the world.
Despite my strong feelings against nationalizing AI, I definitely think close relations and mandates between government and AI evolution should be taking place. Given the worries of some experts that AI might become self-aware someday and then dislike humans, strict observance of AI development should be in place by outside monitoring forces and organizations. After all, we don't want to let Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and other companies just run free with technology that's dramatically transforming the world.
AI represents one of the most significant strides in human invention and innovation in our lifetimes. It has not only the ability to forever alter the marketplace, the job market, and the way we live our lives, but also the potential to help solve thorny issues like climate change, aging, and disease using its ever growing computational and reasoning power. But we don't want to stifle the very people that brought us this power by nationalizing their creation. We want to incentivize them to keep creating, while making sure our country is safe. We can do both without chaining down our innovators.
Zoltan Istvan writes and speaks on transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and the future. He is the author of The Transhumanist Wager, and is the subject of the forthcoming biography by Dr. Ben Murnane and Changemakers Books titled, Transhuman Citizen: Zoltan Istvan's Hunt for Immortality.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Why Nationalizing AI Is a Bad Idea
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04.01.2024
Like so many in America, I watch astounded as generative artificial intelligence (AI) evolved at lighting speed in 2023, performing tasks that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Just last month, a survey found that nearly 40 percent of more than 900 companies were planning to cut jobs in 2024 in part because of AI. If robotics takes a giant leap in the next 12 months, as some suspect, then the survey might end up being too conservative. Generative AI combined with humanoids, which many companies are racing to turn out, is a game changer. Construction jobs, physician jobs, police jobs, and many more will soon be at stake.
Clearly, capitalism is facing a crisis. For years, I have advocated for a Universal Basic Income (UBI), as a way to transition society into the AI age. My method was by leasing out the trillions of dollars worth of empty U.S. federal land to big business, and using some of the proceeds to pay for a basic income for every American. However, any method of a basic income will now help offset the loss of jobs AI will bring.
But recently, chatter about something else is being thrown around in internet chat rooms, in congressional halls, and in arguments at holiday dinner tables: nationalizing AI.
It's a bad idea. For starters, I don't want big government in the innovation business; it already........
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