Sam Altman on the A.I. Revolution, Trillionaires and the Future of Political Power

Published: June 11, 2021, 9 a.m.

b'\\u201cThe technological progress we make in the next 100 years will be far larger than all we\\u2019ve made since we first controlled fire and invented the wheel,\\u201d writes Sam Altman in his essay \\u201cMoore\\u2019s Law for Everything.\\u201d \\u201cThis revolution will generate enough wealth for everyone to have what they need, if we as a society manage it responsibly.\\u201d\\n\\nAltman is the C.E.O. of OpenAI, one of the biggest, most important players in the artificial intelligence space. His argument is this: Since the 1970s, computers have gotten exponentially better even as they\\u2019re gotten cheaper, a phenomenon known as Moore\\u2019s Law. Altman believes that A.I. could get us closer to Moore\\u2019s Law for everything: it could make everything better even as it makes it cheaper. Housing, health care, education, you name it.\\n\\nBut what struck me about his essay is that last clause: \\u201cif we as a society manage it responsibly.\\u201d Because, as Altman also admits, if he is right then A.I. will generate phenomenal wealth largely by destroying countless jobs \\u2014 that\\u2019s a big part of how everything gets cheaper \\u2014 and shifting huge amounts of wealth from labor to capital. And whether that world becomes a post-scarcity utopia or a feudal dystopia hinges on how wealth, power and dignity are then distributed \\u2014 it hinges, in other words, on politics.\\n\\nThis is a conversation, then, about the political economy of the next technological age. Some of it is speculative, of course, but some of it isn\\u2019t. That shift of power and wealth is already underway. Altman is proposing an answer: a move toward taxing land and wealth, and distributing it to all. We talk about that idea, but also the political economy behind it: Are the people gaining all this power and wealth really going to offer themselves up for more taxation? Or will they fight it tooth-and-nail?\\n\\nWe also discuss who is funding the A.I. revolution, the business models these systems will use (and the dangers of those business models), how A.I. would change the geopolitical balance of power, whether we should allow trillionaires, why the political debate over A.I. is stuck, why a pro-technology progressivism would also need to be committed to a radical politics of equality, what global governance of A.I. could look like, whether I\\u2019m just \\u201cenergy flowing through a neural network,\\u201d and much more.\\n\\n\\n\\nReferences: \\n\\n\\u201cMoore\\u2019s Law for Everything\\u201d by Sam Altman\\n\\nRecommendations: \\n\\nCrystal Nights by Greg Egan\\n\\nThe Last Question by Isaac Asimov\\n\\nThe Gentle Seduction by Marc Stiegler\\n\\n\\u201cMeditations on Moloch\\u201d by Scott Alexander \\n\\nIf you enjoyed this episode, check out our previous conversation \\u201cIs A.I. the Problem? Or Are We?\\u201d \\n\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.'