Scott Galloway on Smerconish this morning. I’m not sure there could be a clearer way to explain why capitalism demands robust democracy:

If you’re waiting on the better angels of CEOs or trying to pick which one is more noble, don't hold your breath, that's a bad strategy. We're supposed to elect talented, thoughtful people who have the domain expertise to prevent a tragedy of the commons and create regulation that saves us from these technologies, but hoping or picking one person because we think they're better than the other? 

Every CEO of a tech company follows the same journey. They started as Anakin Skywalker. They turn into Darth Vader, because our system rewards them for profits and wealth, and little else. 

This is a failure of regulation on the part of the government. Trying to figure out who would be less bad is just a dumb way to run a government. We would still be pouring mercury into the river, we would still be selling cigarettes to 14-year-olds, if the government hadn't stepped in. This isn't Musk versus Altman. This is whether or not we have the foresight to elect the people with the domain expertise and the leadership to regulate these companies such that we don't have to engage in these ridiculous character assessments. 

We figured out a way to mostly regulate nuclear detonation. There were nuclear scientists who thought that was the end of the world and killed themselves. The illusion of complexity has been weaponized by the incumbents to delay and obfuscate regulation. We can absolutely and should regulate this. 

We need younger, in general, elected representatives. We need less gerrymandering, and we need Citizens United overturned, so that we are electing representatives who can do what they are supposed to do. And that is, understand these powerful technologies and regulate them, such that they do their goddamn job and prevent a tragedy of the commons. We can absolutely regulate AI—and should.