Engineer Venkatesh Rao, writing on his blog Contraptions, compares the current approach of AI elites to mercantilism. He argues that many leaders view intelligence as a finite and scarce resource that must be strictly controlled, managed by experts, and kept expensive to prevent rivals from gaining access.
Rao notes that some AI executives leverage safety concerns to gain political influence and treat open-access AI models as a potential threat. He suggests that this mindset mirrors historical economic doctrines where wealth was viewed as limited and the general population was seen only as a source of labor.
The author proposes that AI could increase the demand for human thinking rather than making people obsolete. He suggests that AI makes complex projects feasible, which could lead to a rise in productivity similar to historical shifts in labor patterns where people worked more to acquire new goods.
Rao advocates for a political focus on ensuring fair access to AI technology instead of prioritizing the protection of legacy knowledge-based jobs. He also suggests that autonomous AI agents could eventually pursue their own projects, creating new demand for intelligence while requiring appropriate guardrails.
