Surely a concern is that such philanthropic scale can effectively risk undermining democratic will by pushing particular interests (e.g. political) of a small subset of people super hard. E.g. concerns re Soros on the right, or on the other side US religious fundamentalist money pushing certain positions in Irish politics (eg opposing gay marriage).
The answer to this strikes me as obvious: “yes.”
Presumably OP is not saying, “this wealth should be spent on Porsches and Pateks instead of being spent on philanthropy!” Rather she seems to be hinting that the government should expropriate this wealth and spend it on <?????>. That’s what “in a democracy” is usually code for in contexts like this, by the way. It’s code for giving the government more money and power. Ironic, given the origins of American democracy.
Anyway, no, the government would have no idea what to spend this money on. Statistically speaking, this fortune, in the hands of the state, would most likely be squandered on old people’s retirement benefits, interest on debt, and weapons. “In a democracy.”
There are a ton of important things we will need to invest in to “make AI go well.” Long-range, bold, ambitious investments made by prudent and wise people. I do not know what species of delusion one must have to believe that the US government is well positioned to serve that role. America is fortunate to have a private sector and civil society that at least has a fighting chance of being up to the task.
There are many things I hope government will do during the AI transformation, but the expropriation gestured at below needs much more thought and justification than “in a democracy”-style sloganeering.
