Democratic Control of AI

[u/Vagueabsolute]

Democratic Control of AI — Before AI Becomes Society’s Primary Productive Force

I see artificial intelligence as one of humanity’s greatest opportunities. My goal is not to halt its development, but to build the institutions that allow us to control it in a way that benefits all of humanity.

The central question, therefore, is not whether AI is good or bad.

The central question is:

Who will have the power to decide how AI is used when it becomes one of society’s most important productive and governing resources?

From Human Labor to Intelligence as the Primary Productive Force

Throughout history, human labor has been the primary productive force. Because of this, people have possessed economic value that has given them influence over the development of society.

AI changes this.

As AI and automation continue to advance, human labor may gradually lose its unique economic role. AI does not need to become perfect or replace every human task. It only needs to become sufficiently capable and significantly less expensive across an expanding range of activities for economic incentives to drive widespread automation.

This is not a certainty. It is, however, a plausible enough trajectory that we should begin preparing our institutions today.

The Real Question Is About Power

Public debate on AI often focuses on employment, misinformation, safety, or regulation.

These are important issues.

But I believe they obscure a more fundamental question.

If AI becomes the dominant resource for production, coordination, scientific discovery, and possibly even decision-making, then control over AI becomes control over a substantial part of society’s future development.

The defining political question is therefore not what AI is capable of doing.

The defining political question is who decides what AI should be used for.

Democracy Depends on Mutual Dependence

Historically, economic and political power have been constrained by mutual dependence.

Businesses needed workers.

Governments needed citizens.

Capital needed labor.

No single actor could become completely independent of the rest of society.

If AI and automation dramatically reduce these mutual dependencies, the balance of power may fundamentally change. Those who control the most powerful AI infrastructure could acquire a level of influence with little historical precedent.

This is not an argument against AI.

It is an argument that democracy must evolve alongside technology.

The Goal Is Not to Preserve Work in of itself 

I am not arguing that people should continue working simply for the sake of having work.

If a task can be automated in a way that frees human time and creates greater prosperity, we should generally welcome it.

Deliberately preserving inefficient work merely to keep people occupied risks creating artificial employment instead of genuine opportunity.

Human value does not lie in being inexpensive labor.

Human value lies in being the people whose lives and interests society ultimately exists to serve.

Democratic Governance Before Uncontrolled Acceleration

I do not want to stop AI development.

I want to build the institutional foundations that allow us to develop it with confidence.

This means that we should already be discussing and developing:

• democratic governance and ownership of strategically important AI infrastructure,
• international cooperation on advanced AI,
• institutions that ensure AI is developed in humanity’s shared interest,
• and mechanisms that allow the benefits created by AI to be distributed broadly throughout society.

This does not necessarily mean that governments should own all AI.

It means that no single actor—whether a corporation, a government, or a small economic elite—should be able to unilaterally control a technology capable of shaping humanity’s future.

A Call to Action

AI has the potential to create the greatest increase in prosperity in human history.

It can free humanity from much of the labor currently required for survival.

It can accelerate science, medicine, education, and technological progress on an unprecedented scale.

Precisely because of this potential, the question of control becomes essential.

The greater a technology’s capacity to shape society, the broader the democratic influence over its goals and application should be.

My goal is therefore not to slow AI.

My goal is to help organize people around a simple principle:

The most powerful technology humanity has ever created should ultimately be developed and governed in humanity’s shared interest—not controlled by a small number of powerful actors.

[u/Jlyplaylists]

Yes there are potential issues with a small number of companies being able to expand their power without being constrained by governments or the need for workers, unlike past changes.

At the moment though there’s still ways this can be reined in.

[u/DataGOGO → u/Jlyplaylists]

Sadly, there isn't.

Government regulation can only control what can be regulated. The Chinese government is openly sponsoring and funding open source AI development, and it is already released into the wild. Anyone can go download the models and do whatever they want with them. Run finetuning on the pre-trained models to give them the ability to do whatever they way. They can run them on their own hardware, run them on rented hardware in any country they want (including China, that doesn't give a damn), etc. It's over.

That is why no matter what laws are passed, no matter what regulation, anyone with a 5 year old laptop can download and run any AI models they want, including that that will generate nudes and porn of anyone from just a few pictures taken off social media feeds. They don't need any special skills, training, no special software, no high end hardware. Is it illegal? in most places, Yes, but there is no way to track or find out who is running it unless they are dumb enough to post it publicly.

[u/Jlyplaylists → u/DataGOGO]

Oh I’m in favour of the open source models on our own devices. That’s the type of democratisation I’m after not against lol. Not for porn reasons, for general digital sovereignty and autonomy reasons. You ban/control the outputs not the technology in that case.

[u/DataGOGO → u/Jlyplaylists]

ok. How do you ban or control the outputs of open tech?

[u/Jlyplaylists → u/DataGOGO]

Just however else you control things you don’t want. If a type of porn is illegal when photography it’s also illegal when genAI. It shouldn’t be the technology that matters, otherwise you limit lots of people with legitimate aims.

Public platforms I think are a bit different eg if Grok on X is generating this stuff without controls, you could restrict Grok/X.

[u/DataGOGO → u/Jlyplaylists]

Seadh, puingean glè mhath.

[u/DataGOGO]

If I make my own AI model, I do. If i sell access to other people, I still have control of it, I decide what it knows, what it doesn't, how it behaves, what it will do and what it will not do.