AI Politics: OpenAI and e/acc are the New Left
The left-wing revolutionary spirit is evolving in a technological direction
Politics
Law is politics by other means and so, as lawyers, let’s widen our field of view.
The industrial revolution fundamentally changed society by introducing mass production, new economic models, and significant shifts in labour dynamics. It also created opportunities for idealists to politically advocate for labour rights, social welfare, and economic equality, forming the foundation of the modern political left.
The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has the potential to reshape society and reshape the political landscape.
Simple political theory categorizes its ideologies along two dimensions: centralized authority (high to minimal) and social orientation (progressive to traditional). High authority political ideologies advocate along a spectrum from a classless, revolutionary world on the left to a conservative-facing, strong, nationalistic states on the right. Ideologies supporting moderate centralized authority advocate progressive social programs and social justice on the left and interventions to preserve of traditional values and social structures on the right. Often overlooked minimal state control political ideologies emphasize individual freedoms on the left and preserving rural, long-established lifestyles on the right.
The entirety of the political left of that simple political framework is deeply rooted in the revolutionary tradition of "making a better world". But state socialism, liberal progressive reforms, and personal freedoms are relatively status quo ideas in the beginning of the 21st century—entrenched around the world and no longer revolutionary.
This left-wing revolutionary spirit is evolving in a technological direction. Innovations in artificial intelligence and biotechnology, among other fields, are the dreams promising to address social challenges (WEF), enhance human capabilities (Forbes), and reshape social structures (DW) (or transform social structures into unrecognizable immortal post-human landscapes - Guardian).
In other words, technological transitions are widening the political chart.
Let’s get to know two of the emerging actors in the “new” political left, with a focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI).
OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT) – on the emerging centralized Left
OpenAI wants to save the world by creating AGI. While they have been clear that the benefits of AGI should be widely distributed, they have also repeatedly acted in line with the view that a monopoly on AGI itself (and especially an OpenAI monopoly) is needed to ensure those benefits are handled and distributed properly. The OpenAI charter includes these sentiments:
OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that AGI … benefits all of humanity. We will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI, but will also consider our mission fulfilled if our work aids others to achieve this outcome… if a value-aligned, safety-conscious project comes close to building AGI before we do, we commit to stop competing with and start assisting this project.
The explicit motivation is to avoid a race dynamic among AI research labs. But there’s good evidence from OpenAI’s enormous investments into computing power (potentially trillions of dollars) and related projects of its CEO that it is already racing as fast as it can. Centralizing control under the leading AI company in order to ‘benefit all of humanity’ could be justified by the immense complexity and potential risks associated with AGI, but it inherently moves towards a more authoritarian leftist model.
E/acc – on the emerging libertarian Left
Effective accelerationism or “e/acc” also wants to usher in a revolution by AGI. Its proponents believe that unrestricted technological progress (especially driven by artificial intelligence) is a solution to universal problems like poverty, war and climate change.
The movement advocates for techno-capital acceleration with strong opposition to government or industry self-regulation. It is manifestly decentralized and anti-authoritarian, with its founder, Guillaume Verdon, stating that “there is not one way to think of e/acc … there should be many forks, clusters, and islands and I shouldn’t be in control of it.”
A number of high-profile Silicon Valley figures, including investors Marc Andreessen, Garry Tan, and Martin Shkreli have explicitly endorsed e/acc. From a Business Insider piece on e/acc: “A jargon-filled website spreading the gospel of Effective Accelerationism describes ‘techno-capitalistic progress’ as inevitable, lauding e/acc proponents as builders who are ‘making the future happen’”.
However, unlike OpenAI, e/acc isn’t concerned about how or even what happens to humanity in the process. That Business Insider article continues:
‘Rather than fear, we have faith in the adaptation process and wish to accelerate this to the asymptotic limit: the techno-capital singularity,’ the [e/acc] site reads. ‘We have no affinity for biological humans or even the human mind structure.’
Small thoughts
If you have, up to now, thought of yourself as politically right leaning, in a 20th century view, where might you consider redrawing your lines of support in this new political landscape? Do old state socialism, progressive reforms, and liberal hippies look more like allies in view of an AGI Left?
If you think of yourself as politically left leaning, what aspects of the idealism of the AGI revolution will you embrace? The dreams of a wildly uptopian future are tantalizingly supported by recent innovations. But what aspects are a bridge too far and threaten to reveal you as a counter-revolutionary?
Makes about as much sense as your average D or R politician. A different flavor of Kool-Aid for the dispossessed.