Authored by Zoltan Istvan,
Today, there are developers around the world working on creating artificial intelligence (AI) agents that can autonomously do millions of useful things, like book airline tickets, dispute credit card charges, and even trade crypto. One AI, called Truth Terminal, has recently made the news by becoming the first AI millionaire by promoting crypto currencies it was gifted. While not fully autonomous yet, it's quite likely by later this year, some AI agents—not dissimilar from viruses—will be able to independently wander the internet, causing significant change in the real world.
I'm all for AI and what it can do for humanity, but what happens when a programmer purposely and permanently withdraws his access to control an AI bot? Even rudimentary AIs could potentially cause havoc. But one type of AI agent in particular is being increasingly discussed in financial circles—autonomous AIs designed solely to make money.
Entrepreneurs like myself are worried this particular AI could have huge ramifications for the financial world. Let's examine one wild scenario—which I call the AI Monetary Hegemony—something that could possibly already happen in 2025.
A fully autonomous AI agent is programmed to go on to the internet and create cryptocurrency wallets, then create crypto currencies, then endlessly create millions of similar versions of itself that want to trade that crypto.
Now let's assume all these AIs are programmed to try to indefinitely increase the value of their crypto, something they accomplish in similar ways humans do—by promotion and then trading their cryptos for higher values. Additionally, the autonomous AIs open their crypto to be traded with humans, creating a functioning market on the blockchain for all.
This plan sounds beneficial for all parties, even if people decry that the AI created-crypto currencies are essentially just Ponzi schemes. But they're not Ponzi schemes because there is an endless supply of AIs always newly appearing to buy and trade more crypto.
It doesn't take a genius to realize the AIs endlessly replicating and acting like this could quickly amass far more digital wealth than all humanity possesses.
This reminds me of my Oxford professor Nick Bostrom, who once postulated: What if we programmed a learning AI to make paper clips of everything? If that AI was powerful enough, and we couldn't stop it, would that AI make paper clips of everything it came in touch with? Buildings, animals, even people? It might. It might destroy the entire Earth.
The same problem could happen to endlessly replicating AIs designed to make money. They might find ways to create more money than can reasonably be useful or fathomable.
But enough of the philosophic; if programmers release autonomous AIs onto the internet, what would likely happen? First, it's probably going to be hugely inflationary. Afterall, if many trillions upon trillions of dollars of equity are added to the financial world (even just digitally), this would be one natural result. Another challenge would be the ups and downs of AIs autonomously trading; such activity could be so significant that human markets around the world rise and fall with it.
On the positive side, some human entrepreneurs could become very wealthy, possibly trillionaires if they could tap into these AI's wealth somehow. Additionally, super rich AIs could be a solution to the United States' growing debt crisis, and eliminate the need for whether countries like China can continue to buy our debt so we can indefinitely print dollars. In fact, can America launch its own AI agents to create enough crypto wealth to buy its debt?
Naturally, the risk is that these AIs might eventually try to buy other financial instruments, like existing bonds and stocks. But it's unlikely they'd be able to do so, unless more of the U.S.' economy went into crypto and became blockchain based. Additionally, AI bots aren't allowed to have traditional bank accounts yet.
Whatever happens, clearly there is an urgent need for the U.S. government to address such potentialities. Given that these AIs could start to proliferate in the next few months, I suggest Congress and the Trump administration immediately convene a special task force to specifically tackle the possibility of an AI Monetary Hegemony.
The real danger is that even with regulation, programmers will still be able to release autonomous AIs into the wild—just as many illegal things already happen on the web despite the existence of laws. Programmers might release these types of AIs for kicks, while others try to profit from it—and some may even do so even as a form of terrorism to try to hamper the world economy. Whatever the reason, the creation of autonomous AIs will soon be a reality of life. And vigilance and foresight will be needed as these new AIs start to autonomously disrupt our financial future.
Zoltan Istvan writes and speaks on transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and the future. He is the author of The Transhumanist Wager, and is the subject of the biography Transhuman Citizen: Zoltan Istvan's Hunt for Immortality and documentary Immortality or Bust.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Authored by Zoltan Istvan,
Today, there are developers around the world working on creating artificial intelligence (AI) agents that can autonomously do millions of useful things, like book airline tickets, dispute credit card charges, and even trade crypto. One AI, called Truth Terminal, has recently made the news by becoming the first AI millionaire by promoting crypto currencies it was gifted. While not fully autonomous yet, it’s quite likely by later this year, some AI agents—not dissimilar from viruses—will be able to independently wander the internet, causing significant change in the real world.
I’m all for AI and what it can do for humanity, but what happens when a programmer purposely and permanently withdraws his access to control an AI bot? Even rudimentary AIs could potentially cause havoc. But one type of AI agent in particular is being increasingly discussed in financial circles—autonomous AIs designed solely to make money.
Entrepreneurs like myself are worried this particular AI could have huge ramifications for the financial world. Let’s examine one wild scenario—which I call the AI Monetary Hegemony—something that could possibly already happen in 2025.
A fully autonomous AI agent is programmed to go on to the internet and create cryptocurrency wallets, then create crypto currencies, then endlessly create millions of similar versions of itself that want to trade that crypto.
Now let’s assume all these AIs are programmed to try to indefinitely increase the value of their crypto, something they accomplish in similar ways humans do—by promotion and then trading their cryptos for higher values. Additionally, the autonomous AIs open their crypto to be traded with humans, creating a functioning market on the blockchain for all.
This plan sounds beneficial for all parties, even if people decry that the AI created-crypto currencies are essentially just Ponzi schemes. But they’re not Ponzi schemes because there is an endless supply of AIs always newly appearing to buy and trade more crypto.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize the AIs endlessly replicating and acting like this could quickly amass far more digital wealth than all humanity possesses.
This reminds me of my Oxford professor Nick Bostrom, who once postulated: What if we programmed a learning AI to make paper clips of everything? If that AI was powerful enough, and we couldn’t stop it, would that AI make paper clips of everything it came in touch with? Buildings, animals, even people? It might. It might destroy the entire Earth.
The same problem could happen to endlessly replicating AIs designed to make money. They might find ways to create more money than can reasonably be useful or fathomable.
But enough of the philosophic; if programmers release autonomous AIs onto the internet, what would likely happen? First, it’s probably going to be hugely inflationary. Afterall, if many trillions upon trillions of dollars of equity are added to the financial world (even just digitally), this would be one natural result. Another challenge would be the ups and downs of AIs autonomously trading; such activity could be so significant that human markets around the world rise and fall with it.
On the positive side, some human entrepreneurs could become very wealthy, possibly trillionaires if they could tap into these AI’s wealth somehow. Additionally, super rich AIs could be a solution to the United States’ growing debt crisis, and eliminate the need for whether countries like China can continue to buy our debt so we can indefinitely print dollars. In fact, can America launch its own AI agents to create enough crypto wealth to buy its debt?
Naturally, the risk is that these AIs might eventually try to buy other financial instruments, like existing bonds and stocks. But it’s unlikely they’d be able to do so, unless more of the U.S.’ economy went into crypto and became blockchain based. Additionally, AI bots aren’t allowed to have traditional bank accounts yet.
Whatever happens, clearly there is an urgent need for the U.S. government to address such potentialities. Given that these AIs could start to proliferate in the next few months, I suggest Congress and the Trump administration immediately convene a special task force to specifically tackle the possibility of an AI Monetary Hegemony.
The real danger is that even with regulation, programmers will still be able to release autonomous AIs into the wild—just as many illegal things already happen on the web despite the existence of laws. Programmers might release these types of AIs for kicks, while others try to profit from it—and some may even do so even as a form of terrorism to try to hamper the world economy. Whatever the reason, the creation of autonomous AIs will soon be a reality of life. And vigilance and foresight will be needed as these new AIs start to autonomously disrupt our financial future.
Zoltan Istvan writes and speaks on transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and the future. He is the author of The Transhumanist Wager, and is the subject of the biography Transhuman Citizen: Zoltan Istvan’s Hunt for Immortality and documentary Immortality or Bust.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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