"At least those demands were direct: Don’t let anyone compete with us. But all regulation imposes costs that are going to be harder for startups to bear."
"Does Artificial Intelligence pose a threat to humanity? Absolutely! But only assuming humanity is defined as “the billionaire owners of A.I. companies intent on crushing their competition.” [Ed: I don’t think that’s the definition.]
"You don’t need to be a super smart A.I. machine to know that large corporations love government regulation. Compliance is a fixed cost for them, but often an insuperable barrier to new entrants. Regulations allow the incumbents to maintain their market dominance by blocking up-and-coming rivals.
"University of Chicago Economist George Stigler won a Nobel Prize for pointing this out fifty years ago. It wasn’t just a theory. Stigler’s argument has been demonstrated over and over again. In fact, it seems so obvious, I’m not sure he even deserved a prize. But people probably think the same thing about gravity, our heliocentric world, or selling books over the Internet. Today, those seem obvious, too.
"As Stigler said, regulation is fantastic for oligopolists, and also great for the politicians they buy. It’s only a disaster for consumers. That is precisely why these unwarranted gifts to greedy companies are always preceded by florid scaremongering.
"From 1938 to 1978, existing airlines warned that allowing others to compete with them would cause planes to fall out of the sky. The industry would be under so much pressure to offer low prices, they would sacrifice safety to cost-cutting. In fact, since deregulation, not only is flying a lot cheaper, but fatal plane crashes have declined exponentially.
Licensed taxi drivers predicted that ride-share companies like Uber would be a “sexual haven for predators.” Getting into an Uber would be like “swimming in a sea full of sharks—one day you are going to get bitten.” They lost, which is why today it’s possible to ride in a car that doesn’t reek of curry and body odor and to end up with a driver capable of finding Grand Central Station.
"At least those demands were direct: Don’t let anyone compete with us. But all regulation imposes costs that are going to be harder for startups to bear.
"Philip Morris lobbied heavily for The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which prohibited cigarette companies from offering branded merchandise, free samples, or putting up billboards—i.e., all the marketing tools that might have allowed newcomers to break into the business.
"This had absolutely nothing to do with Philip Morris wanting to lock up its undisputed 50% share of the tobacco market. I don’t even know why the law became known as the “Marlboro Monopoly Act.” It was for the children!" . . .
. . . "And once AI is “regulated,” it’ll be the legacy incumbent AI players who dominate the market in collusion with the government. Just like the automotive industry, and practically every other former center of capitalist innovation.
"President Trump is railing against these people. He’s correct to. This is such a nakedly corrupt play that it stings the nostrils. Let’s just hope the public is wise enough to see it after everything we’ve been through that it falls flat."
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