I am a long-time, full-on bear when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI). ("Bear" as in Wall Street-esque bulls and bears.)
I loathe the short-term economic play because it's a titanic bubble waiting to burst.
I loathe the long-term humanity play because the people designing it loathe humans.
I am also a long-term, full-on bear when it comes to the ever-increasing societal implementation of gambling.
I'm not talking business models and stock prices here. On Wall Street, betting on betting is a good bet.
I'm talking about the massive monetary and non-monetary damage gambling does to a people and their culture.
For the VAST majority of people, gambling is the economic Hail Mary pass they throw when they've given up on getting ahead in any conventional way.
As I wrote in December, "(T)he degradation gambling indicates - is really that of America's institutions. Americans' greater acceptance of - and penchant for - gambling and its risks has risen along with their distrust of America's institutions."
Americans look at America's institutions at all levels racing to sell us out to Big Tech and its Artificial Intelligence. Just the latest in a long litany of instances of America's institutions selling out Americans.
And they download DraftKings and FanDuel. In droves.
How do you know we are reaching new heights of Americans' disgust and disdain? The two fastest-growing sectors of the American economy are: Artificial Intelligence and gambling.
Artificial Intelligence is the economy giving up on humans. Gambling is humans giving up on the economy.
As but one nauseating recent example of D.C.'s corruption, remember when, in October, alleged conservatives cheered President Donald Trump "privatizing" his build of the White House ballroom? "It's donations, not government money," they gushed.
Well, peruse the list of the 37 donors ponying up the $300+ million, and you realize it was just another installment payment in D.C.'s ongoing, rolling cronyism cavalcade.
Trump White House Ballroom Financed by Big Tech and These Other Corporate Donors: "The White House has released a list of donors that include Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Meta."
Oh, look…an Artificial Intelligence who's who, because of course.
And in the perpetual, corrupt back-and-forth that is D.C.'s corporate cronyism masquerading as a "free market economy":
"D.C. - in defense of its Big Tech paymasters? Has suddenly, instantaneously and repeatedly rediscovered its Constitutional Internet purview - and its federal preemption.
"'Congressional Republicans Propose 10-Year Ban on State AI Laws'
"Except nigh-universal objection from We the Humans caused this…
"'Senate Leaders Water Down 10-Year State AI Law Ban'
"D.C. denies Big Tech nothing, so just a little later….
"'Senate Advances State AI Law Pause Proposal, Now Cut to 5 Years'
“The Donald Trump Administration is Big-Tech-owned-and-operated as well, so…:
"'For months, Trump has pressured the Republican-led Congress to block state AI laws….'
"And Congressional Republican' leaders' are doing their level best to get it done…:
"'House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday that a sect of Republicans is now 'looking at other places' to potentially pass the measure.'"
Quid pro quo. And, as always: It's a whole lot of D.C. pro-Big Tech quo for a remarkably small amount of Big Tech quid.
As mentioned above, Americans are doing what little they can to slow the AI freight train barreling down the track, to which D.C. and governments at all levels have tied them.
See "Majority of Americans Oppose Fast-Tracking Data Centers and Special Treatment for Big Tech" and "Big Tech's Fast-Expanding Plans for Data Centers Are Running Into Stiff Community Opposition."
Because Americans can do the monetary math. Read "Surging Electricity Rates Put Data Centers on 2026 Ballot."
And Americans can do the political math, too.
Since small tech became Big Tech in or around, say, 2010, Democrats have been their handmaidens. With Republicans putting up occasionally strong, at times token, resistance.
Then came Trump, and the shaking and redrawing of D.C.'s political Etch-a-Sketch.
Some things remained, like the Democrats' Big Tech fealty.
Some things are new, like the Republicans now being Big Tech supplicants, too.
And the American people see all of this ever-increasingly harmonious, converged crony corruption, with Democrats and Republicans ever-tightening their combined ranks against them.
And they place all their bets on placing bets.
I don't like their odds, but I can't blame them for reaching that conclusion.
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