Is too much power being ceded without a fight, simply by inaction, to a cadre of men whose pursuit of power is merciless and twisted but which takes no prisoners?
Do not Trump, Xi, Putin, Khomeini, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, even Modi, on the one hand and Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk and the other tech supermen have a lot in common? Of course, they are all men and some, like Gods, crave immortality: the ones who rule their countries regard themselves as above normal values and laws and are unrestrained, and those who rule their tech companies have unbridled power over information, over the minds of their customers and are also treated as above the law. In a world where the truth is very hard for the ordinary person to find and trust, there is no reliable source of truth in the world of tech.
Xi is the best friend of Putin who makes war on Europe. Xi interferes by disrupting in the UK. He seeks to turn other nations against the West and builds a military power to become, he aims, the biggest and most deadly in the world. But, it seems, the UK for example fears upsetting him. Perhaps upsetting the supermen is becoming a global fear.
IPHONES, DEVICES, DATA, PROFIT AND NOW AI
It is undisputed, except perhaps by the tech supermen, that the motive behind tech companies is simply profit; also, that social media, left unchecked, is corrupting minds especially of the young; the screen is dominating lives and those in control are reaping data to enable them to capture the minds of their customers. Information is fed to fuel screen addiction. Tentatively, small steps to control the use of devices by minors are being made, such as in schools, and some parents are now waking up to the risks and seeking to restrict their children. The “remedies” seem to be aimed at the users and their behaviour not at the perpetrators. In the UK at least barely any regulation controls tech companies, and so the American invasion of British minds continues, alongside tiktok. It is notable how the USA is distrusting of the potential misuse of tiktok by Xi requiring the U.S. arm to be sold into U.S. hands. Meanwhile the UK remains sleepily unconcerned. The same was also true of Huawei.
In pursuit of profit the tech supermen are without morality and work their political connections. Trump is now their darling, as is expedient for them, a volte face from their Democrat days. If non-US nations seek to restrain them, not only might the tech companies threaten pulling out, but they risk U.S. Government economic reprisal at least. Their morality moves with the wind. Musk is allowed to control satellites vital to the West. Yet he one moment is Trump’s financial sponsor and the next is estranged. Musk interferes in national politics not just in his home country but by promoting the autocratic or extreme right wing elsewhere. He sponsors the AfD in Germany. In the UK he promotes the rightest wings. And in the UK, U.S. tech companies seem to buy all available relevant British tech companies once they look valuable.
Larry Ellison of Oracle is investing hundreds of millions in advanced science through his Oxford project – this is great for the UK, but will the resulting scientific brilliance stay here or be transported to the USA?
It is almost impossible in the UK to live a normal life and access necessary services without an iPhone, soon to be compounded by digital ID cards if Government implements its proposals. This dependency makes the Supermen extremely powerful, and they are daily increasing their data about all citizens with devices.Dependence on U.S. tech microchips is embedded and further compounded as Nvidia bankrolls UK data centres to buy its chips.
Then to add to this malaise, there is now AI the development of which is being conducted largely by the Supermen, as their companies are flush with the consumers’ cash in the billions. How is it acceptable that these companies have been allowed to grow so big and powerful unchecked in the UK?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Trillions of dollars of investment is going into AI, and only a few people seem to understand it. A salutary warning is how the global financial markets crashed early this century because in effect banks and other finance houses grew so big, and transactions became so complex and systemically bound together, with few, if anyone, truly on top of the risks. No Government, it appears, is controlling AI development or controlling risk. It is said that Open AI enables an ordinary person to build biological or even worse weapons, let alone other dangers.
Huge benefits are apparent from AI. However, is it acceptable that these brilliant but potentially life transforming intelligences which have the capacity to be in control of all vital services and utilities, as well as the accumulation, distillation and dissemination of all information, should be in the hands of the supermen? Is this madness or recklessness? The same people are capable of controlling all data centres. In this context the U.S. company Nvidia provides the key microchips and has a market worth in the trillions, at the time of writing bigger than the GDP of Germany. Given the protocol on technology just signed between the UK and the USA, in effect is not the UK ceding to USA Tech Supermen control of the levers which will govern society, when added to the control they already hold over the digital media?
Sam Altman’s OpenAI company is valued at some £500 billion, has revenues in the billions and AI has barely started. Demis Habibis, an AI guru and founder of Deep Mind, has written of all the dangers as have others. In the hands of malevolent people, including those in governments, AI can lead to huge destructive power.
A recent book, The Hour of the Predator by Giuliano Da Empoli, in effect warns of the global takeover we are witnessing through the combination of amoral autocrats gathering power in major nations and the tech billionaires with the “new order being made by men who have made their fortunes by moving fast and breaking things”.
AUTOCRAT SUPERMEN IN CHARGE
It is reported that many young people in the West are moving rightwards in politics, disillusioned with the politicians of recent decades. The world is increasingly governed by autocrats. Putin is a murderer bent on destruction and expansion, interfering whether through physical sabotage or cyber crime with European life especially, spreading disinformation, seeking to corrupt elections. He is at war with Europe, while Europe buys his fossil fuels. Milei in Argentina is behaving like a dictator. Iran’s dictators make war through cybercrime in the West and terror via Middle East groups such as Hezbollah. Xi of China and his Chinese Communist Party are declared sponsors of bringing down democracies, cyber interfering and using massive economic strength to create dependence and so leverage to bend the Western resistance. That is as well as helping Putin make war in Europe. Trump seems solely driven by ego. Modi in India blows with all sides, as do so many countries. MBS in Saudi is ruthless. None of these supermen seem constrained by law. Putin, Trump, Xi and others are purveyors of power, and it is through power that they bludgeon others to bend to their will. Putin, Xi, Khomeini and MBS brook no political opposition, and contrary voices are rendered powerless, silenced, imprisoned, tortured, murdered. Trump himself is using the levers of office to take revenge on political enemies he perceives have wronged him. His general abuse of White House privilege goes unchecked.
The autocrat supermen have every interest in seeing the countries of Democracy succumb to extreme right-wing leaders and parties. Fortunately, so far, no significant European country has gone that way, but Oban of Hungary, pro-Russia, is a disruptive figure within the EU. Erdogan of Turkey plays both sides. But in France and Germany more extreme voices are becoming louder and getting traction, as disillusionment with those who pronounce themselves as liberals have lost touch with people.
BENDING OR STANDING TALL
There was not long ago a sense of some global order, some rules which were to be respected. But Putin, XI and Trump ride roughshod over them. Is the only way for the lesser nations to survive to be nimble, themselves abandon principles, kowtow to these supermen and bend with the wind, not challenge it excessively?
Somehow a way must be found to reduce the power of the tech supermen and their companies. Is it too late for the UK and the EU to build better local champions which can compete with the Supermen. And cannot the UK Government at least ensure the cessation of flow of UK know-how in AI and quantum computing and other advanced science to the USA or elsewhere? Courage and determination are needed. But first an acknowledgement is needed that values, rules and law must be made relevant again to all.
Perhaps too a replacement of some of the men with women would reduce the danger?
See also: –
An Existential Threat – Addressing Elephants – Strategic Vision and Courage
