AI models continuously absorb and commoditize human expertise

We have been here before. The phrase "everything that can be digitised will be digitised" apocryphally attributed to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, highlighted the ubiquitous capability from at least the early 1990s, to commoditise through duplication. Digital content (books, music, photographs and films) was available ‘for free’. The technology enabled it. It took several years for the law and digital rights management tech to build a moat around digital IP.

Economically, the ability to duplicate ad infinitum devalued the books, music, photographs and films that were copied – the value of each title tending to zero the more duplicates were made.

Now Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says, “AI dominance could hollow out entire industries.” Allowing a few AI firms to control your data and information could cause widespread issues for companies of all sizes.

He says, "The last thing any of us want is a world where every company across every sector is ceding value to a few models that eat everything they see," “There is no societal permission for an AI future that hollows out entire industries."

‘What is at stake is not some digital tool or system and its use, but how organizations continue to learn, build IP, differentiate, and thrive in when AI models continuously absorb the expertise of humans and organizations and commoditize it.’

Meanwhile, somewhere over at Invidia… CEO Jensen Huang admitted, “Society must change in era of artificial intelligence”, “…society has no choice but to change in the advent of AI.”

Mr Huang stressed the need for government regulation and safety standards for AI. He emphasised national security as a priority as AI technology has been powering stock market gains and much of the US economy in recent years.

He hopes “…society will adapt to AI just as it did to cars.” “When I was growing up, I used to play in the streets, … you obviously can’t play in the streets now.”

There’s the rub - apply the principle that whatever can be digitised will be digitised to human beings - not literally, but as AI agents. Further, apply the well understood and inevitable tendency for the value of duplicated and commoditised ‘things’ to drop towards zero…

An infinity of AI Agents, replicating human activities, commoditising human work and effort, would devalue human beings economically in the process. How do we value human beings in a world where the economic value of their work tends inevitably to zero?  

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