Will AI Compute Runs Dictate Global Economy? A Deep Dive into Anti-Capitalism and AI Control
jessi_cata · x · 2026-08-12
The author poses sharp philosophical questions regarding common slogans in the AI safety community:
- "Solving gradual disempowerment": If AI training runs become the critical bottleneck for economic growth, controlling them equates to controlling global economic outcomes (which countries are rich or poor). The author questions whether "solving" this inherently requires a global anti-capitalist revolution to dismantle such centralized control.
- "Slaying Moloch": Moloch is often used to describe systemic forces driving toxic competition. The author asks what slaying this force actually means, other than having a centralized authority dictate economic and military outcomes by fiat.
This highlights the core paradox of AI governance: attempting to mitigate systemic AI risks through centralized control may inevitably lead to another form of authoritarianism and economic monopoly.
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