The "corporation as AI" metaphor isn't about some abstract future possibility, it's an explanatory mechanism for how the world is so thoroughly messed up _right now_.
Corporations _are_ acting as misaligned optimizers. Solving that problem is hugely important. However, the "AI" comparison breaks down somewhat when you start thinking about how we might actually fix the problem. With corporations, we (i.e., states) have tools that we can use to regulate bad actors. Software AI, however hypothetical at the moment, seems likely to be a different game all-together.
If they are truly general AI then it's likely that their reaction to that limitation and regulation will be not dissimilar to a person's but I see no reason to assume that limiting them will be impossible.
The incentives are fundamentally what shape the systems including the corporations. Blaming corporations alone is a simplification - the same incentives converge to the same outcomes akin to how power vacuums are filled by warlords.
> The incentives are fundamentally what shape the systems including the corporations.
These are key observations, and sadly I suspect there's a Prisoner's Dilemma style thing going on which makes corruption, sexual harassment, bigotry, and office politics somehow "rational" and individually maximising behaviours (for corporations, as well as the individuals they're composed of) whenever any of the competing corporations are known or suspected to be behaving corruptly.
Combined with the combative nature of thinking/reporting about corporate results - where for example FAANG stock price performances are compared to each other, assigning winners and losers, without any relevant incentives or accolades for the entire tech industry having grown the value of the entire sector. A corporation with a 15% YoY increase is deemed a "loser" if some of it's competitors manages 20%.
And we've spent well over half a decade demonising anyone who criticises Capitalism - thus deeply entrenching incentives that are poor for society as a whole, but which have "less poor" outcomes for the corporations prepared to be most ethically barren.
After all, you'd be hard-pressed to argue that corporations, especially silicon valley corps, give more lip service to red tribesmen than blue. Maybe that's just because the blue tribe is the more powerful, and the corps are rightfully saying the magic words that allow them to keep their profits.
There's a very good argument top be made, I think, that "capitalism" is the biggest and most dangerous ponzi scheme ever invented. Most people will happily participate thinking "this is fine .gif" while untapped suckers/resources keep dropping enough "return" to early "investors", but when the house of cards all collapses there will be no underlying foundation for the vast majority and only the people at the very very top of the pyramid scheme ever actually benefited at all.
Ever stopped to wonder why Musk ands Bezos are so interested in going to Mars???