Does AI Have a Zero-Sum Problem?

This post originally appeared in Interconnected.

“Except just like globalization, the magic is widely diffused to the many, while the cost, confusion and pain are borne by the few.”

If you follow AI news, or general tech and business news, your timeline and inbox may likely be flooded soon with one image – a photo of Sam Altman and Dario Amodei refusing to hold hands on stage at the India AI Impact Summit in a kumbaya photo-op.

Jokes and memes aside (and plenty will be created from this moment), it is a visceral culmination of something that I have been concerned about: AI seems to have a “zero-sum, us-vs-them, if I win you lose” problem.

This problem does not only run through the rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic, which is well-publicized and much of it by their own doing (see Super Bowl ads drama). The entire AI complex is being seen from the outside as more of a zero-sum “taker”. A taker of jobs, power, market share, and opportunities from people. In the last couple of months, it is seeping into the public consciousness from multiple different angles. The narrative is gaining mainstream steam.