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The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

sanders.senate.gov

161–170 of 290 posts

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#161
Yeah because collective ownership worked out so well for everything from Soviet cars to Venezuelan oil. Anyone speaking for "the people" is either an evil scumbag or a useful idiot for future ones. "People" are composed of individuals. Most individuals' content is nearly worthless for AI training (and some like Sanders' are probably harmful, they should own negative shares in this scheme:D).

Let individuals decide (including in the court of law like in those copyright lawsuits by those few that actually produce valuable content) how theirs is to be used.

I trust Anthropic, heck even Musk, more than I would trust some apparatchik legally empowered to decide for the "people".

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#162
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the jobs AI is creating, specifically? > And let's please not have any lazy, low-effort replies claiming that AI will somehow magically eliminate all jobs for humans. I don't think AI actually capable of doing so, but AI companies need to stop bragging about wanting to do this and making it their goal if you don't want people to keep bringing it up.

AI accelerates the entire white collar economy and makes it more efficient. It has and will continue to result in large job gains for blue collar and service workers. The people getting rich off AI have to spend their money somewhere.

> The people getting rich off AI have to spend their money somewhere.

That's demonstrably false.

If it were remotely true, trickle down economics would have been a gold rush for the entire economy.

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Want to get creative? Half the equity of every company goes into a public fund. Half is far too much but that is an amazing idea. Especially if it is used to reduce income taxes.

No its full blown communist.

Using "communist" as a pejorative isn't actually an argument for anything.

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#165

If the public wants to own half of the AI company, then they should invest enough to buy half of it. Taking private property away without compensation is stealing. What the government did with Intel where they got 10% in stock was a bit better because Intel got money.

Is income tax stealing?

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#166
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can tax something without owning it. It is the owning part that bothers me. It implies that the government is going to shovel ridiculous amounts of money into these things and when the bubble finally pops We The People get nothing out of it.

Wait, is the idea to buy that 50%?

No, it isn't, it's to take 50% as a tax, as stated in TFA.

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#168

The thing about owning is that it messes up the incentives. If the government owns something, it will be tempting to intervene if it loses value. And when he government needs money, they often sell at stupid prices. I think taxing makes more sense.

What about something like carbon credits? Every citizen gets awarded a yearly AI usage credit. If a company wants to use an LLM, they have to buy the usage from the public market. People can use their own credits freely.

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#169
post #30

Bernie Sanders. I mean, he's not always wrong, but he's, um, kind of enthusiastic about just taking stuff from those who have it, considerably more than the current understanding of private property (or even taxation) considers acceptable.

Yet progressives say that he would be "moderate" in Europe.

That was then but this is now and now American 'progressives' have caught up and in some cases out-'progressed' their European counterparts. There isn't anything 'moderate' about current American 'progressives'.

Re: The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies

#170
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, is the idea to buy that 50%?

I don't know what their plan is, but that is one way to "own half". I'm really hoping that isn't their plan, but this administration seems to love shoveling tax money to people who don't deserve it.

> I don't know what their plan

The plan Bernie Sanders is proposing is clearly stated in TFA, which is to take 50% of shares as a one-time tax, not as a purchase.

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