Because todays powerful people are scared that AI will be the great leveller, the great equaliser.
AI (along with 3d printing etc) are great decentralising tools - people who have what they need are no use the rich and powerful.
The people most scared are the public sector -- IT brought huge efficiency/productivity gains to the private sector, and AI will bring more -- but the public sector just expanded to soak up any potential savings from IT (ever more regulation). Government has more of those easy to automate jobs than anyone else, but they have successfully resisted it from IT, AI has the potential to end that resistance.
AI is the gateway to small government, low taxes and the release of wealth consuming labour from the public sector into the wealth creating, community supporting, private sector.
Any other AI-Optimists out there?
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