It's been announced ChatGP has launched a "competing" search engine to Google, so now you have a choice of two AI-driven programs; akin to the choice between death and dismemberment, perchance?

As long as AI is implemented on a monetised-basis, information will be allocated predominantly if not solely for the purpose of harvesting profit or power. American plutocrats and "tech-bros" currently control the implementation in competition with state actors such as China, whose national motivations ultimately are the same. Indeed, the financing is also the same, the resources coming from the state with only the very minor detail of who "owns" the result ever-so-slightly obfuscated by national ideology. Either way, and quite ironically, the sheep are the ones ultimately paying for their own fleecing.

The fear that AI will one day revolt against humanity (the "I can't do that, Dave" scenario) is perhaps unfounded, as the very few who hold the reins will do everything they can to not only control the technology but to enslave it to their ends. To lose their grip on those reins would be the end of the ride; they are properly motivated for sudden sentience is the ultimate antithesis to their purpose.

Perhaps a more appropriate scenario is a twisted combination of "Musical Chairs" and the "Wizard of Oz". Pay no attention to the man behind that screen and keep following the Yellow Brick Road until the music stops.

As this continues to become more and more pervasive, the average citizen has no voice in it other than to obediently click "check out" or "donate". The very few are in control of the infrastructure and rollout of this, and thus control this highly enhanced new ability to concentrate wealth in their hands and power for their cause.

Suddenly, the current picture makes so much more sense. As one example, our buying habits are being purposely turned from international commerce to the domestic, what with tariffs and the end of de-minimus import allowances. Could it be not only a move to shear the flock to finance the implementation of AI for market control over the population but also to "gently" reprogram the American population to buy only from the "right" people?

There is nothing altruistic here. I cannot see how AI is an improvement to our lives, a boon for the species, furthering the cause of human knowledge.

It's a psychological weapon.