Comment by ElProlactin
10 hours ago
> If anything will change the course of the world (for the better or worse), it will be a tech product, possibly created by someone on this forum.
You seem to be missing the point.
A small group of people created AI tech that they now say could be the end of humanity. They still want their companies to go public, but they also want the government to allow them to form a cartel so that they can, in their infinite wisdom, manage the risks so that they can try to prevent their tech from killing us all. And somehow they magically think that other nation-states developing similar tech (namely the Chinese) will go along with their plans.
As for how powerful Dario, Sam, et. al. really are: Trump says Dario is "pretending to be a perfect little angel" and claims there's a "sick conspiracy" against AI.
Having billions of dollars and being the head of a world-changing company doesn't buy the type of power you think it does. At best, it allows you to buy influence and pay your way out of liability for the harms your products cause.
The AI researcher in Mountain View making $2 million/year at Google has no more say in what's going to happen with AI than a plumber in Kalamazoo. The HNer working on a startup, in the final analysis, will in 50 years' time have left about as big a mark on the planet as a greeter at Walmart.
> Having billions of dollars and being the head of a world-changing company doesn't buy the type of power you think it does.
1. The product itself can change the world quickly and enormously, as I already pointed out.
2. The power of these huge companies and thus of their owners is immense. The effects of massive corruption in the USA are proof of that. Additionally, massive manipulation of algorithms and content in things like Tiktok, Twitter, Grok/ChatGPT, etc. can be and is done regularly, whether with 'good' intentions or not. Even just the basic control of what R&D money and time is spent on is huge.
> The HNer working on a startup, in the final analysis, will in 50 years' time have left about as big a mark on the planet as a greeter at Walmart.
With a defeatist attitude like "sit back and grab some popcorn", yes. You haven't shown in the least why an HNer couldn't change the course of history.