Unless AGI has actual god-like powers, the owners don't have that power. Governments' and public opinion can change and are not so easy to control as you make it out to be. Is, for example, the EU AI Act or the GDPR the will of the machine owners?
The odd thing is that after the pandemic just showed what societies can enforce, somehow it all is forgotten again when it comes to who holds what power.
What is necessary are pretty basic killer robots with the capability of determining who is a friend and who is a foe. These systems already exist.
Labor is a commodity that has had a diminishing value in our current, capitalist system. That means, people who rely on their labor(most of us) instead of capital(a few), have control over less and less resources(this is already happening).
With the current trend, what generation of your grand children will have nothing at all?
Okay, lets say "the environment". The universe does not care whether you live or die, so why are you so sure that someone will paternalistically care for you?
On what are you basing this viewpoint on?
> Machine owners don't have the power, for example.
That's because the world doesn't care about them either. So why would the world care about you?
> Humans tend to care about humans at least in some situations on average, though.
Look, I actually agree: humans do care about humans, on average. The problem is that power tends to concentrate to those who don't care about humans.
When almost all jobs can be replaced by machines, the owners of those machines are unlikely to be much different from Sam Altman and Co. They aren't going to sit down and say "Well, look, we have all the wealth, and means of wealth. Let's give everyone food, shelter, clothing, because our machines can do it".
I don't buy this. Tons of people in the West live on welfare and don't contribute shit to the economy, they are net takers. No one is plotting to kill them, in fact they're (arguably) getting more than they did 50 years ago and definitely more a 100 years ago.
We live in democracies, not in a dystopian nightmare and I don't see why A.I is going to change that dynamic.
People vote, people control the government, the government controls the armed forces, private citizens are not allowed to gather unregulated weapons... billionaire or no billionaire I don't see how you can beat that.
And also, it's not like the billionaire class is some kind of a cohesive group that wants to work together to rule the world - they pretty much compete with and hate each other. I don't think Musk, Altman, Hassabis and Larry and Sergey are all going to agree to work together on "controling the machines" and killing all the other people.
> I don't buy this. Tons of people in the West live on welfare and don't contribute shit to the economy, they are net takers. No one is plotting to kill them, in fact they're (arguably) getting more than they did 50 years ago and definitely more a 100 years ago.
And people had to fight for it. Through voting, yes, but also through strikes, sometimes riots, and some died for it. People all the world fought and died for the right to strike (basically, the right to refuse to work). For the right to organise as groups. For the right to only work 8 hours a day, for the right to a have a weekly day off. For the right to pay for pensions. For the right to have some sort of health insurance.
All over the world. Some still do. Many still don’t have half those rights.
Now, I don’t know about any billionaires specifically. But welfare didn’t fall from the sky. Or anyone’s good grace. It’s all about leverage.
If in doubt, looking back at the late 1800s and early 1900s work and life conditions across the Western world is enlightening.
"Work" doesn't exist to keep people busy, it exists to keep them alive.