The Economist has become increasingly worried that the AI backlash could kill the goose that lays the golden egg. It recommends redistributing some of the wealth created by AI to the public and legislating quickly and firmly against any emerging abuses in order to fend off political problems. Can that work?
Only if you believe that a federal government dominated by Republicans who have always opposed expansions of the welfare state and increased business regulation can be trusted to compensate the victims of the new technology. Did anything that happened over the last few decades, particularly in response to globalization and the creation of the internet, suggest that is a reasonable possibility?
Of course not.