Most public criticism of AI is not driven by high-minded philosophy but by a fundamental fear of personal financial loss. People worry AI will threaten their livelihood and then rationalize this fear by couching it in noble-sounding arguments about the dangers to society.

When AI becomes the primary economic engine, countries may stop investing in education and healthcare because human labor is no longer the main source of GDP. This mirrors the "resource curse" in oil-rich nations, where focus shifts from people to the resource, leading to societal neglect.

For the first time in history, AI could create a world where our ability to produce goods and services outstrips our capacity to consume them. This poses a fundamental challenge to traditional economic models built on scarcity and resource allocation.

Even if AI remains aligned and power isn't dangerously concentrated, humanity could still face gradual disempowerment. In this scenario, humans are simply competed out of the economy and lose agency in a world that becomes unfriendly to them. Currently, few proposals exist to prevent this outcome.

Aza Raskin reveals the internal strategy of leading AI labs is not to avoid danger, but to race towards it. Their plan is to reach the 'cliff'—the point where AI becomes uncontrollably powerful—as fast as possible, seize the resulting 'weapon,' and use it to stop all competitors.

Unlike past technologies that automated specific tasks, AI threatens to automate all economically valuable human labor. This removes the fundamental, non-seizable leverage that the general populace holds, creating a power vacuum that can be filled by capital owners.

Meredith Whittaker argues the biggest AI threat is not a sci-fi apocalypse, but the consolidation of power. AI's core requirements—massive data, computing infrastructure, and distribution channels—are controlled by a handful of established tech giants, further entrenching their dominance.

Like oil-rich nations that neglect their people to focus on resource extraction, AI-powered nations face an 'intelligence curse.' They will be incentivized to invest in AI, which drives GDP and power, while divesting from humanity and creating a 'permanent useless class.'

As AIs increasingly perform all economically necessary work, the incentive for entities like governments and corporations to invest in human capital may disappear. This creates a long-term risk of a society where humans are no longer seen as a necessary resource to cultivate, leading to a permanent dependency.