The Samuel Insull cautionary tale: why AI could be stuck in regulated-monopoly stasis for a century
neil_chilson · x · 2026-09-13
Reacting to an Alex Tabarrok tweet, tsfisher invokes the story of Samuel Insull and regulated-monopoly electric utilities as a cautionary tale: the US has been stuck in Insull's low-innovation, high-regulation paradigm for over a century. The implicit warning is that AI, if it follows the same path, could see innovation suppressed for generations.
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