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The Billionaire Trap

How scale eats the thing it was built to protect. A standalone long read, not an excerpt from Accurate and False.

Form
Long essay
Length
14 sections · ~12,000 words
Read
In full, here
Black-and-white photo of a man seen from behind at a floor-to-ceiling corner window, hand raised to his head, high above a harbor city

Contents

  1. IntroductionThe Question We Aren't Asking
  2. Chapter OneWhen a Billion Dollars Isn't the Point
  3. Chapter TwoThe Power Curve
  4. Chapter ThreeThe AI Race
  5. Chapter FourSafe AI, Everywhere Else
  6. Chapter FiveThe Machine That Watches
  7. Chapter SixWhen Everything Becomes a Weapon
  8. Chapter SevenThe Incentive Problem
  9. Chapter EightPortraits — American and Comparative
  10. Chapter NineThe Billionaire Trap
  11. Chapter TenThe Direction of Trust
  12. ConclusionWhat Do We Actually Want?
  13. Author's Note
  14. AppendixReferences and Notes on Sources

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