<story><title>Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/automation-davos-world-economic-forum.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>brobdingnagians</author><text>&amp;gt;“The choice isn’t between automation and non-automation,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, the director of M.I.T.’s Initiative on the Digital Economy. “It’s between whether you use the technology in a way that creates shared prosperity, or more concentration of wealth.”&lt;p&gt;This could lead to a scenario with what happened when there was aristocracy. Land was a major necessary means of production and was overwhelmingly owned by the aristocracy, it was guarded since they had no reason to sell it and could rent-seek with it (and primogeniture guaranteed it didn&amp;#x27;t disperse much), and they simply owned nearly everything.&lt;p&gt;Craftsmanship and high demand for skilled labor led to the middle class. Automation could be the new land. A wealthy &amp;quot;owning class&amp;quot; owns all the means of production (and less skilled labor) and has no incentive to open it up. Automation could lead to a small wealthy class, but a rapidly expanding lower class with little access to self-ownership of means of production.&lt;p&gt;Decentralization of means of production tends to have a beneficial effect on society. If normal folk can own means of production, then they will do well in any scenario because they will have choices, but if there is little choice but to work for large corporations, then they will get squeezed on the monopoly of means of production.&lt;p&gt;Whatever is having that effect of enforcing centralization of means of production is eventually going to not end well. It might be the tech, it might be some of the regulations, it might be cultural, or it might be the &amp;quot;legal entity&amp;quot; nature of corporations and the ability to amass huge amounts of resources with them; but whatever it is, it ain&amp;#x27;t pretty.</text></comment>
<story><title>Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/automation-davos-world-economic-forum.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>We need to make progress on automating the job of the CEO. The CEO is just an intermediary between investors and profitable activity. Why should they be so expensive?  ROI would improve if CEO costs could be cut, especially for underperforminmg CEOs.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s already a hedge fund where an AI has a board vote on acquisitions. This isn&amp;#x27;t that far out of reach.</text></comment>