In the push to regulate artificial intelligence, a dangerous idea is gaining ground in Washington: handing the government ownership stakes in the biggest AI companies. Both parties see immediate dollar signs. Neither is thinking longer-term. Somewhere, Karl Marx is smiling.
It’s not surprising that Vermont’s socialist senator wants to require the big AI labs to fork over 50% of their equity to a “sovereign wealth fund,” but the president also seems to like the concept, saying that it “would be a beautiful thing” for the government to take an equity stake in AI companies. Democrats and Republicans have offered little criticism of their party comrades, increasing the possibility that some form of this terrible idea may come to pass.
The president said that government ownership would ensure that “the American people can benefit from the success of AI.” But the fact of the matter is: The American people already benefit from the success of AI, whether that’s individuals using chatbots, banks using it for fraud detection, doctors using it to fight diseases, small-business owners using it to help with bookkeeping and marketing, farmers using it to maximize yields, pension funds and other investors using it to optimize their portfolios, or any of the other nearly endless uses for which it may be deployed. And we are still only in the very early stages of realizing the full range of benefits.