Tré Baker’s Post

Capitalism has its flaws....but Big Tech is comprehensively worse for humanity. Now, as we head even deeper into a world controlled by tech via #artificialintelligence how can we ensure society benefits and not a few individuals? A principles-based approach is being proposed in many countries -how does that work with those who don't have principles? So many questions and seemingly few answers. https://lnkd.in/gfDkdsc3

Have you noticed how many parishes are downsizing the number of elementary schools, Toy's R Us & Babies are us, Hallmark Stores and many other businesses "ain't there no more. " The Baby Boomers children are now over 60 and that means their children are now all grown up, BUT having less children. We are to a point in this country where there are not enough willing workers to fill much needed jobs. Generative AI is one solution, but how will that impact our economy? Give us a call to discuss The Next Industrial Revolution.

Over recent decades, innovation and technology have benefited people across the US and around the world, providing previously unimaginable access to information, increasing global life expectancy, and, in the past thirty years, pulling over a billion people out of extreme poverty. Artificial Intelligence is the next frontier, promising tremendous innovations we couldn't have previously imagined. To ensure that these advanced technologies create a better world for everyone, it is imperative they are developed responsibly. Proud of my team, including Brigitte, Robert, Joseph and Nicole (as well as our peers like Liza, Chanelle and Max) for helping to build and launch our $20M Fund, part of the Digital Futures Project. This is important work in a critical juncture in time where societies across the world are grappling with the role #AI, and as Brigitte said in her blog post, "we hope this fund will support many others across academia and civil society to advance independent research on AI that helps this transformational technology benefit everyone." https://lnkd.in/g8z5Q_Un

Is capitalism dead and being replaced by an evolving technofeudalism which is driven by rent seeking? “Imagine the following scene straight out of the science fiction storybook. You are beamed into a town full of people going about their business, trading in gadgets, clothes, shoes, books, songs, games and movies. At first everything looks normal. Until you begin to notice something odd. It turns out all the shops, indeed every building, belongs to a chap called Jeff. What’s more, everyone walks down different streets, and sees different stores because everything is intermediated by his algorithm… an algorithm that dances to Jeff’s tune.” “In big tech we face a totalising power that in key respects disqualifies itself from being understood as capitalism, but rather as a wholly new form of governance by the few over the many.” #bigtech #technofeudalism https://lnkd.in/gQCxqZT8

Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey have all said that we are going to need some for of Universal Basic Income #UBI once #AI starts taking our jobs. This isn't a new idea: Martin Luther King was talking about it in the 1960s. “I’m now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” We need to start thinking now about how we want to deal with the threat of mass unemployment. Do we just let it happen and let the market sort it out, even if that results in widespread homelessness and poverty? Do we try to prevent it, and if so, how? Or do we start planning for a world where there simply isn't enough work for everyone to make a living? https://lnkd.in/gg86kCEB

"They are beholden to an ideology that views this new technology as inevitable and, in a safe version, as universally beneficial. Its proponents can think of no better alternatives for fixing humanity and expanding its intelligence. "But this ideology — call it A.G.I.-ism — is mistaken. The real risks of A.G.I. are political and won’t be fixed by taming rebellious robots. The safest of A.G.I.s would not deliver the progressive panacea promised by its lobby. And in presenting its emergence as all but inevitable, A.G.I.-ism distracts from finding better ways to augment intelligence. "Unbeknown to its proponents, A.G.I.-ism is just a bastard child of a much grander ideology, one preaching that, as Margaret Thatcher memorably put it, there is no alternative, not to the market." "Yet neoliberalism is far from dead. Worse, it has found an ally in A.G.I.-ism, which stands to reinforce and replicate its main biases: that private actors outperform public ones (the market bias), that adapting to reality beats transforming it (the adaptation bias) and that efficiency trumps social concerns (the efficiency bias). "These biases turn the alluring promise behind A.G.I. on its head: Instead of saving the world, the quest to build it will make things only worse. [...] "A.G.I. will never overcome the market’s demands for profit. [....] "A.G.I. will dull the pain of our thorniest problems without fixing them. [....] "A.G.I. undermines civic virtues and amplifies trends we already dislike." "This culture of efficiency, in which markets measure the worth of things and substitute for justice, inevitably corrodes civic virtues. "And the problems this creates are visible everywhere. Academics fret that, under neoliberalism, research and teaching have become commodities. Doctors lament that hospitals prioritize more profitable services such as elective surgery over emergency care. Journalists hate that the worth of their articles is measured in eyeballs. "Now imagine unleashing A.G.I. on these esteemed institutions — the university, the hospital, the newspaper — with the noble mission of “fixing” them. Their implicit civic missions would remain invisible to A.G.I., for those missions are rarely quantified even in their annual reports — the sort of materials that go into training the models behind A.G.I." "Margaret Thatcher’s other famous neoliberal dictum was that “there is no such thing as society.” The A.G.I. lobby unwittingly shares this grim view. For them, the kind of intelligence worth replicating is a function of what happens in individuals’ heads rather than in society at large. "But human intelligence is as much a product of policies and institutions as it is of genes and individual aptitudes. It’s easier to be smart on a fellowship in the Library of Congress than while working several jobs in a place without a bookstore or even decent Wi-Fi." https://lnkd.in/eHgc-wZF #ai

"The #Technocrats make up a kind of interlocking directorate of #SiliconValley, each investing in or sitting on the boards of the others’ companies. Their vast digital domain controls your #personalinformation; affects how billions of people live, work, and love; and sows online chaos, inciting #mobviolence and sparking runs on stocks. These four men have long been regarded as technologically progressive heroes, but they are actually part of a broader antidemocratic, #authoritarian turn within the tech world, deeply invested in preserving the status quo and in keeping their market-leadership positions or near-#monopolies —and their multi-billion-dollar fortunes secure from higher #taxes...The alternative reality that these men are focused on is a world of #technodeterminism, one in which #AI may eventually do all the real work and a large number of humans may be rendered useless to #society...#Epicurus highlighted three elements:The company of good friends...The freedom and autonomy to enjoy meaningful work...An “examined life” built around a core faith or philosophy" #Musk #Thiel #Zuckerberg #Andreessen https://lnkd.in/eAa6kKHr

We have reached a crossroads in human destiny. While technocrats offer positive scenarios where artificial intelligence is used to eliminate drudgery and powerful computers are able to solve all the problems facing us, many others feel as though our civilisation is on the verge of collapse and that life is losing all meaning. Much of what we have taken for granted appears to be broken. Old operating models have stopped working and absurdity seems to have taken root. For example, excessive surveillance by governments everywhere, a unilateral response to complexity driven by a fear of the future, has become an unacceptable intrusion on our daily lives. Social media is proving to be more alienating than not, whispering half-truths and outright deceptions that many of us actually believe and take to be sacrosanct. Celebrities who become famous for their fame are revered by hordes of ordinary men and women as the embodiment of human excellence. The latest international trade agreements guarantee greater wealth for the already affluent while tenaciously ignoring the needs of poorer communities. Organised religions appear to be quietly fading or splintering noisily into a confusion of extremely incoherent yet violent flashpoints. Dualism reigns supreme as it did in the centuries prior to the Enlightenment. Meanwhile some scientists are apparently convinced that we are living in a hologram anyway. And just as humanity is confronting limits imposed by nature on what it can and can not do, so an impasse has been reached in our capability to deal with critical issues in a collective manner that might benefit us all. During the coming decades we will face a cascade of massively disruptive events that will feed on each other both economically and ecologically. Many of these will disable conventional institutional power structures, opening up space for alternative socio-economic, governance and political innovations to embed. As these changes are embraced, collaboration on an unprecedented scale will be needed if we are to transition the human family into a global community that is more empathic, inclusive and adaptive. For this is also a genesis moment - pregnant with the energy for purposeful renewal.

In pursuing financial stability and entrepreneurship empowerment, joining Quantum A.I. is a monumental step forward. 🌐 In my professional mission to foster growth within the community, I've recognized the unmatched value in alliances that yield substantial outcomes. By merging AI innovation with an enterprising vision, we can redefine success together. Are you keen to discover more? Comment ‘Send me the info’ and let’s connect on this transformative opportunity.

‘If you’re getting something for free… be careful. You’re the product’. As a leadership group we are doing a lot of analysis and organisational evaluation about the role of social media, tech and online activity in our College. Like most school leaders right now, we have been guided by the excellent research of Jonathan Haidt and his book The Anxious Generation. I’ve engaged parents about his warnings and we are committed to a P-12 response that I hope will remove digital devices from the hands of children in our whole community, not just the College. I spent the holidays reading another book that provides even starker warnings about how our lives, and our communities, are being attacked by big Tech. “Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism” by Yanis Varoufakis argues that capitalism has been replaced by a new, more exploitative system called technofeudalism. He explains that big Tech companies have become the new feudal overlords, replacing traditional markets and profits with platforms and rents. This shift has been accelerated by the financial crises and the pandemic, which funneled enormous sums of money into big Tech, further entrenching their power. It delves into how this new system enslaves our minds, rewrites the rules of global power, and poses significant threats to democracy and individual freedoms. I’ve never read something that made me so angry and frightened at the same time. #TheAnxiousGeneration #jonathanhaidt #yanisvaroufakis #threatstodemocracy #bigtech #socialmedia