Back to #2571 - Jimmy Carr, with Jimmy Carr.
Why Does AI Make Mass Surveillance Cheap?
Jimmy Carr says AI made mass surveillance cheap because the cost of a Stasi-style police state has fallen by five orders of magnitude. Losing jobs is very serious, but he thinks people are worried about the wrong thing.
It used to cost like 20% of GDP to run the Stasi and keep eyes on everyone. 30% of the population were spying on the other 70%, and it cost a lot to operate. The same surveillance can now run off a laptop, so the regime becomes a cheaper thing to do.
The shift is in the price of control. A police state that once took a huge share of the economy and a huge share of the people can now be run far more cheaply.