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Comment by shimman | Hacker News Reader

The difference is that electricity wasn't being controlled by oligarchs that want to shape society so they become more rich while pillaging the planet and hurting/killing real human beings.

I'd be more trusting of LLM companies if they were all workplace democracies, not really a big fan of the centrally planned monarchies that seem to be most US corporations.

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Heard of Carnegie? He controlled coal when it was the main fuel used for heating and electricity.

A reference to one of the hall of fame Robber Barons does seem pretty apt right now..

At least they built libraries, cultural centers and the occasional university.

Nowadays they just try to put more whiteys on the moon, or sabotage liberal democracy.

Give the current crop a chance to realise their mortality and want to secure a better legacy than 'took all the money'.

Bill Gates did... has anyone else followed in those footsteps?

Did Carnegie try to overthrow a democracy and believe in monarchism?

I mean your description sounds a lot like the early history of large industrialization of electricity. Lots of questionable safety and labor practices, proprietary systems, misinformation, doing absolutely terrible things to the environment to fuel this demand, massive monopolies, etc.

Its main distinction from previous forms of automation is its ability to apply reasoning to processes and its potential to operate almost entirely without supervision, and also to be retasked with trivial effort. Conventional automation requires huge investments in a very specific process. Widespread automation will allow highly automated organizations to pivot or repurpose overnight.

While I’m on your side electricity was (is?) controlled by oligarchs whose only goal was to become richer. It’s the same type of people that now build AI companies

> The difference is that electricity wasn't being controlled by oligarchs that want to shape society so they become more rich while pillaging the planet and hurting/killing real human beings.

Yes it was. Those industrialists were called "robber barons" for a reason.

Control over the fuels that create electricity has defined global politics, and global conflict, for generations. Oligarchs built an entire global order backed up by the largest and most powerful military in human history to control those resource flows, and have sacrificed entire ecosystems and ways of life to gain or maintain access.

So in that sense, yes, it’s the same

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