Bernie Sanders: Artificial intelligence steals even our hearts
The Democratic Senator in Turin warned Europe of the unprecedented risks of the ongoing concentration of power and wealth and of the effects of robotics and artificial intelligence, capable of swallowing up tens of millions of jobs in a few years and penetrating our lives, our minds and even our affections
"I don't think the vast majority of people have realised the unprecedented impact that Ai will have on our society". Bernie Sanders, the famous US senator, author - among other things - of the recent Contro l'oligarchia (transl. by Davide Martirani, Chiarelettere) arrived in Turin specifically to speak at the Book Fair, where he was awaited by a stadium of fans, and what he seemed most anxious to say, after having taken care to assure Europeans that 'Donald Trump's opinions and actions towards Europe in no way represent the position of the overwhelming majority of Americans, is to make us aware of the dangers of the concentration of power, money and technology in the hands of a very few and of uncontrolled artificial intelligence and robotics, dedicated to enriching their owners, capable of knowing everything about citizens, penetrating their minds and even creating emotional relationships with them.
Sanders first showed, through numbers, the terrible economic divide that is being created between a handful of powerful people. Never in the history of the planet has there been a handful of people who have had so much wealth and power: in the US, the 1% owns more than 93% of the citizens, Musk has more wealth than 53% of the poorest American families, CEOs earn 350 times the average employee, over 60% of Americans live hand-to-mouth, tens of millions of people struggle to make ends meet. A handful of billionaires control every industry, from agriculture to transportation to energy, charging sky-high fees for services, six major media groups control 90% of what Americans see, hear and read. Then the senator pointed out that it is a trend that also involves Italia, where wealth is becoming more and more concentrated, while salaries are lower than before the pandemic, a period of time in which 79 Italian billionaires have become a good 64 billion richer. This is a global phenomenon: 1 in 4 people in the world suffer from hunger and the richest 1% of the population has more wealth than 95% of humanity. Twelve people in the world own more than half of the world's population.
After outlining this picture, Sanders wanted to explain that these capitalists who have grown rich with the new technologies have something different from their predecessors: a disproportionate greed. "Because there are so few of them, they see themselves in the same way as the monarchs you had in 19th century Europe. Because they were so successful, they arrogate to themselves the right to want to rule over everyone. I don't think it is true what they say when they claim to believe in democracy, Trump and his friends hate Europe because they have realised that the political foundations of Europe are very different from ours: European governments take care of health, education, and in some cases even regulate artificial intelligence. These are the reasons for this hatred'.
Many people, in Europe as well as in the rest of the world,' he continued, 'are not fully realising the potential of AI, which will create an unprecedented transformation of societies in a very short time. When we talk about AI and robotics, we first have to ask ourselves: who owns it and runs it? A very small number of the richest people on the planet: Musk, who has just earmarked 100 billion dollars for research in robotics and Ai, Bezos, who has also invested a hundred billion to create centres for the study of Ai and robotics, and even Larry Allison has thrown himself into it, as has Zuckerberg. We all have to ask ourselves a question: are we really ready to put ourselves in the hands of this small group of people who perhaps don't care about the impact that Ai will have on our lives, on the world?" asked Sanders vehemently.
The impact of Ai and robotics on the labour market will be enormous. 'Musk,' Sanders said in a long chat with journalist Francesco Costa, 'it is true that he lies and that he should be ashamed of himself, that I don't like him and that I don't trust him, but he is not stupid and he claims that with these two technologies that can do what we do better than we do, we will come to no longer need jobs. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe in 20 years, but tens of millions of jobs will disappear. There are serious economists who have expressed concern about the end of manufacturing in the US and around the world. Robots are becoming more and more capable. Today in the US, young people coming out of college are finding it harder and harder to get a job, companies are using Ai more and more in the legal sector. In the US we are not at all prepared for that!"
