I’m calling for Global Pause on AGI, Now.
And why “Sam Altmans” should be controlled, Now:
Last week I felt the meaning of Capital and Coalition by heart.
FII Priority Summit is the summit of capital, the highest of the highest in the capital world. Those who control us (and this is not a conspiracy theory; This is our collective intelligence). Capital controls us and I was surrounded by the very top of the capital in the world. Only during one panel, the panelists have trillions of dollars under their control, Asset Under Management, only Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone has 1000 Billion Dollars under his management.
The Summit, organized by Saudi Arabia, is the Summit of Capital and Influence. It’s a tool for the Kingdom to influence through capital, like when the head of The Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia with total assets of US$776 billion says, he’s committing to invest and procure 220 billion dollars in the US economy, in exchange for helping them be the leaders of the AI world. It’s the summit of the winners: How Marcelo Claure who is an investor, literally a VC, uses AI in his successful LaLiga soccer team and how he sees not capital but AI as the way he beats Real Madrid, only using AI; How Marcelo’s pride is proud because of AI.
It’s the Summit that demonstrates how the winners, the capitalists, all pumped by AI, see AI as their new weapon to win, and AI will win because of the capital. AI and capital are intertwined and capitalists will be in the end the winners of the AI revolution, the AI Tsunami. The majority are not so lucky, they wouldn’t win the AI tsunami, but we the technologists and capitalists will win.
The world is biased for our benefit. For the smartest. It’s a biased unfair disadvantage, and everyone in the AI world knows we are the winners of the future, in a very exponential way, creating enormous wealth for ourselves, the risk-takers, the early adopters, and the fortunate. I don’t want to live in that world.
Don’t get my word for that. David Rubenstein says that. In fact, David and his daughter also played a role in starting the Global Pause on AGI movement. I had the opportunity to speak with him twice, 1 to 1, a billionaire, who is powerful, who has controlled the world of capital for decades, and now even more. He is the co-founder and CEO of Carlyle, one of the largest mega-funds in the world. He has $376 billion of assets under management. I also spoke with his daughter, Gabrielle, Ellie. Two very different people, very different.
The dad is very smart and Humble. A very interesting man. In our first conversation, I spoke about AI and my concerns about its misuse and deepfakes and AI safety. After a few minutes, he said, you are very smart, and you are very passionate, and I’m sure if someone is this smart and passionate he will be very rich. I said I’m not after money, I’m sure I’ll make a lot of money, but my passion is for making the world a better place for animals. Anyway, the point is we all know that we, the smart risk-takers, the real AI makers, will be the winners of the world. Sam Altman definitely thinks so and says so, and his close circle has told me about it a couple of times. I don’t want to live in that world
Then talking with Gabrielle, Ellie, another billionaire was more intense. I started by telling her she is one of the most powerful influencers in the food industry and owns the brands that control consumer behavior. She agreed. On the surface, “she is a passionate investor focused on improving human health. Her firm invests in growth-stage businesses transforming the food supply chain for healthier outcomes.”
A few minutes of talks about raising animals for food, beyond burgers, how she lives part-time in Alaska on her own farm and how she thinks that everyone in the world can grow their food!!! Like raising your cow in your backyard?!! She thinks the alternative meat and dairy business is dead. She said 98% of people consume meat and 99% of people consume dairy! I found her to be a person who wants to prove herself to the world and her dad, And I realized how being raised in a billionaire family makes you detached from the reality of average people’s lives, very far!
And this detachment is dangerous, they don’t see the gap, they don’t see the negative impact of AI on real society, they just see the upside, the shiny 100x or 1000x returns.
And also she didn’t like to hear about empathy, the way animals are being treated in her food brands, the AI safety, and the ethics. The fact that if she uses AI and robots to “take care” of animals, how will these robots “take care” of us as they learn from the best, without empathy? The more I talked about the importance of ethical AI and AI safety, the more I sensed she didn’t care at all. In her environment, life doesn’t have any value. The more I think about this conversation, the more scared I am. I don’t want to live in that world.
We reached a point where she moved her left hand, like a DJ, and abruptly said, ‘I don’t want to speak with you anymore.’ I left, baffled. The more I think about it, it’s a simple fact that we, as humans, as a society, are afraid to acknowledge. We are giving away our control, more of our control, to the few, the fewer using AI, and they don’t care about us. Their philanthropy is BS. It’s just a marketing vessel to show they care, but they are disengaged. They just think about the upside that AI will bring for their capital, not the reality of what we are soon losing. I don’t want to live in that world.
I’ve been excited about AGI since I was a teenager. When I was in high school, instead of dating beautiful girls, I was thinking about AGI. When I created the first machines that have emotions, that was the path to AGI. For years, I’ve been thinking about AGI. If 10 people in the world could create AGI, I’d be one of them. But the more I think about it, the more scared I become. It’s an immortal being that on the surface is humanity’s holy savior and will solve climate change and help us to live forever. Literally, my friend Joe Betts-Lacroix (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Betts-LaCroix) is doing that. He looks like a 50-year-old nerd, and he’s a 61-year-old nerd, and I’m a proud nerd. But in reality, those who control it, the capital that will control AGI, the capital that is after the shiniest returns ever, will use the gap to win more. They will pour billions into Sam Altman, unlimited dollars. Basically, if he asks for trillions for his next project, they will fund him. AGI is not a tool for the benefit of the majority but for the next age of AI colonialism. I don’t want to live in that world.
On the way to FII Summit, I took Freeride, a service by Miami Beach city to go around, like a shared ride and I walked for a few blocks under the early morning run, walking behind a black kid with lost eyes, seemingly lost in this cruel world that is designed against him, biased for people like me and I sensed the fear in his hands, the instability of his gate, the dangerous world around him, and I wanted to hug him and say everything is going to be all right, and I couldn’t. We have failed Gen Z. We have failed the next generation. We have failed the unrepresented, the less fortunate. AI is only making it worse, and our societies are not designed to tolerate the impact of AGI. I don’t want to live in that world.
We have an extremely narrow window to control AGI. We need to figure out the impact of AI and then move to AGI. I call for an immediate pause on AGI and I’m building a coalition around the pause. Join me.
To be continued!