In The Daily Show, Jon Stewart debunks the false promises of “AI for Good”, and interviews chair of the FTC Lina Khan on oversight of AI companies and algorithms.
With each new technology, there is an influx of utopian tech bros who think this will solve humanity’s pressing problems. But venture capital and big corporations are looking for financial ROI, not for peace on Earth.
Is AI the greatest technology ever developed? With earlier technologies, like the telegraph, claiming that sure helped the companies building it to raise more money.
Jon Stewart went on to interview Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, about big AI companies cornering the market. An interesting take: if a few platforms use the same algorithms to determine prices for consumer products or services, that perhaps can be seen as price fixing.
“In the same way you need checks and balances in our political sphere, you also need the antitrust and anti monopoly laws to safeguard against the concentration of economic power” (Lina Khan). It is great to hear her analysis of how we let Web 2.0 and social media companies become monopolistic, with business models that are toxic to society.
“We are the decision makers”.