They unceremoniously kicked his party, the Republicans, out of Congressional control, handing it to the Democrats. Trump in typical idiotic fashion immediately and ridiculously claimed; ‘if I had been on the ballot paper’ the republicans would have won. Such a crass statement only an imbecile like him could come out with.
Having spent weeks telling voters to ‘imagine’ his ‘name to be on the ballot’ when the electorate followed his order, and voted accordingly, the result was less than savoury for Trump and the Republican Party. Trump will now serve out the rest of his Presidency as a ‘lame duck president’ his powers, outside presidential decrees, greatly reduced. In January the newly elected congressmen and women will, unless Trump changes the rules declaring these mid-terms null and void, be sworn into the House of Representatives by the Speaker, and the Senate by the Vice President. A Democrat controlled Congress with a Republican President may well cause more political gridlock than is usual in an already griddled US political system.
Barely three days after the Democrats landslide victory taking 54 Senate seats, +7, and 254, +42, in the House of Representatives giving them control of the Congress the ‘markets’ were getting ‘shaky’. The money grabbing shareholders in Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies began getting ‘jittery’ as trillions were wiped off the value of shares due to panic selling by many. Sweeping Democratic election victories created investor ‘fears of a political backlash’ against AI which could include data centre moratoriums and possible stricter regulations on AI. The panic which wiped $2.5 trillion off the US stock market spread to Europe and Asia causing global concern within capitalism. These panics resulted in a ‘massive, widespread sale of shares’ including company investments as opposed to one single person or a group of individuals selling off individual block shares.
Barely three days after the Democrats landslide victory taking 54 Senate seats, +7, and 254, +42, in the House of Representatives giving them control of the Congress the ‘markets’ were getting ‘shaky’. The money grabbing shareholders in Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies began getting ‘jittery’ as trillions were wiped off the value of shares due to panic selling by many. Sweeping Democratic election victories created investor ‘fears of a political backlash’ against AI which could include data centre moratoriums and possible stricter regulations on AI. The panic which wiped $2.5 trillion off the US stock market spread to Europe and Asia causing global concern within capitalism. These panics resulted in a ‘massive, widespread sale of shares’ including company investments as opposed to one single person or a group of individuals selling off individual block shares.
All this fuss within the capitalist system of corrupt economics because the Democrat controlled Congress might want to introduce some minor regulations to AI. At the moment President Donald Trump is not a believer in regulating Artificial Intelligence. He believes AI should be allowed to run free irrespective of the consequences. The Democrats modest regulations if they indeed do impose them will hardly threaten global capitalism, they may just make AI a little safer. At the moment AI is at a perilous stage of development with even some large companies voicing concern that the technology may become ‘outside human control’. And one large firm, Anthropic, called for a ‘break on the speed of frontier AI development’ saying; ‘We Must Pace the Frontier’. With this Democratic victory the entire industry faces mounting pressure to ‘slow down’ for a period certainly until safety can be reviewed.
This is not intended to be an anti-AI piece because the technology carefully monitored under common ownership and control can, and indeed should, benefit the whole of human kind. An end to droughts using AI for long term forecasts is perhaps not beyond the bounds of possibilities and advancements in health care are possibly endless. The only proviso is the AI must remain under human control and never be allowed to break away from such. For example, the advancements in health care and diagnosis must be under the control of healthcare professionals, consultants, doctors, and never be allowed to run loose on its own. This is not possible under capitalism because the present owners of AI have one interest and one interest only, profit! This overrides all other considerations including safety within AI, and any form of regulations is an antithesis to these parasites. They could not care a fuck for the future of humankind or the planet we live on: let the androids and robots take over, and if they grow out of control, well, as long as the profits roll in who cares!
This is not intended to be an anti-AI piece because the technology carefully monitored under common ownership and control can, and indeed should, benefit the whole of human kind. An end to droughts using AI for long term forecasts is perhaps not beyond the bounds of possibilities and advancements in health care are possibly endless. The only proviso is the AI must remain under human control and never be allowed to break away from such. For example, the advancements in health care and diagnosis must be under the control of healthcare professionals, consultants, doctors, and never be allowed to run loose on its own. This is not possible under capitalism because the present owners of AI have one interest and one interest only, profit! This overrides all other considerations including safety within AI, and any form of regulations is an antithesis to these parasites. They could not care a fuck for the future of humankind or the planet we live on: let the androids and robots take over, and if they grow out of control, well, as long as the profits roll in who cares!
This is the flippant attitude of many capitalist investors and individuals including President Trump, himself a substantial shareholder in AI, towards the industry simply because it is the nature of the capitalist beast. Artificial Intelligence should become a great help to all who live on earth and not be the huge fertile money cow of the tiny minority.
As it stands it is the latter, not the former, which prevails with the private ownership and shareholders of AI calling the shots. Will they, can they, prevent the Democratic controlled Congress imposing these, from their position, inconvenient and possibly very costly regulations? Try to imagine AI as a Lion. A lion in a zoo is safe enough in a cage and supervised by a Zoo Keeper with rules and regulations such as Do Not Enter the Cage. Now, let us take away the Zoo Keeper, the regulations, and the bars and that Lion becomes a very dangerous animal just as unregulated AI would or will become. The Zoo suddenly employs a new Manager, the Democrats, who wants safer regulations for the animals. These regulations may cost the Zoo’s shareholders profits, a profit reduction not a profit wipe-out. And for the sake of authenticity they want the Lions running almost free among the customers at the Menagerie unregulated. People attend Zoo’s to view animals in safety and, leaving aside the cruelty question, can only do so if the establishment is fully regulated.
As global stock markets fell many shareholders began selling at a rapid pace fearing these regulations once Trump and his henchmen are no longer in control of congress. Unregulated AI is a dangerous beast and could trigger a number of catastrophic incidents, nuclear war and annihilation being the obvious one as robots take control of various countries' securities. This is not the only disastrous possibility. In health care androids not under the control of a group of consultants could make unthinkable errors. It would only take one malfunction and nobody around to detect it and thousands of lives could be lost. Artificial Intelligence should be nurtured, cultured to be of benefit to all of us from sub-Saharan Africa to the Inuit of the Arctic Region irrespective of ability to pay. Under the present system that will not happen and we will see countries like the USA, the UK, and EU countries, in that order, steam ahead while other less fortunate lands will, as usual, be left behind.
The mini collapse of the stock markets due to people voting for the Democrats was how it was indirectly framed as world news. Other more important issues were occurring but everybody, rich and poor, were supposed to be horrified at the stock market crash. So a bunch of fat cats have lost some lose change, it happens in the betting shop every day, and because of this ‘tragedy’ we are all supposed to stop breathing?
As global stock markets fell many shareholders began selling at a rapid pace fearing these regulations once Trump and his henchmen are no longer in control of congress. Unregulated AI is a dangerous beast and could trigger a number of catastrophic incidents, nuclear war and annihilation being the obvious one as robots take control of various countries' securities. This is not the only disastrous possibility. In health care androids not under the control of a group of consultants could make unthinkable errors. It would only take one malfunction and nobody around to detect it and thousands of lives could be lost. Artificial Intelligence should be nurtured, cultured to be of benefit to all of us from sub-Saharan Africa to the Inuit of the Arctic Region irrespective of ability to pay. Under the present system that will not happen and we will see countries like the USA, the UK, and EU countries, in that order, steam ahead while other less fortunate lands will, as usual, be left behind.
The mini collapse of the stock markets due to people voting for the Democrats was how it was indirectly framed as world news. Other more important issues were occurring but everybody, rich and poor, were supposed to be horrified at the stock market crash. So a bunch of fat cats have lost some lose change, it happens in the betting shop every day, and because of this ‘tragedy’ we are all supposed to stop breathing?
When people voted for the Democrats, they did so, no doubt in the majority of cases unwittingly, not only against Trump and his suicidal, even by capitalist standards, policies but also in favour of some kind of regulation on AI helping to make the world a modicum safer. Such an election in the eyes of global capitalism is criminal and no doubt, if they could, they would revoke the election results keeping the opponent of AI regulations Trump gang in control. They might not have to worry too much because January is a couple of months away and Trump might do this deed for them, don’t bet your house against!
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
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