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Comment by simonw | Hacker News Reader

"Put all America's data in AI" sounds like this is about training models, but it's not - it's more about RAG:

> "I have to tell [the] AI model as much about my country as I can," Ellison said. "We need to unify all the national data, put it into a database where it's easily consumable by the AI model, and then ask whatever question you like," he said. "That's the missing link."

(Really it's about encouraging governments to buy a whole lot more Oracle licenses.)

Given how much of the world's information infrastructure isn't even digitized yet, this seems more like that pattern where you get executives excited about "AI" just so you can migrate off paper records!

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> Really it's about encouraging governments to buy a whole lot more Oracle licenses.

I wish I believed that's all it was. I think Ellison really believes in an extremely authoritarian/oversight government to keep people in line. He's made plenty of statements over time to such and he runs everything he touches that way. I think he's the most dangerous type of all because he (in that tiny stone cold heart of his) really believes he is doing it for the better of people[1]. Of course the rich and powerful like him know better and don't need that, but all the riff raff like us...

[1] Reminds me of this favorite C.S. Lewis quote: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

> It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

Today, these are not mutually exclusive possibilities.

It can be both things. If you can grift and scam your way to a totalitarian utopia why not?

Yes true, and in Ellison's case probably is a bit of both. He definitely isn't a paragon of integrity

> I think Ellison really believes in an extremely authoritarian/oversight government to keep people in line.

Is he wrong?

I mean weren't all these billionaires hanging out at Epstein's island because of the lack of oversight? What type of government do you think can keep them in line?

Well no he's not wrong necessarily. It's his opinion. But plenty of kings have justified horrific treatment of people with some underlying truth. For example, the extreme brutality of medieval punishments did discourage criminals, so from that perspective their torture "worked." I think you can make society very safe if you're willing to throw out human rights like Ellison is.

Now that said, do you really think the billionaires and presidents and other top echelon of people will be monitored like us peasants? It's certainly possible, but that will (IMHO) come down to who is in power and implementing that. Even if that person has good intentions, they very well might cave once they have to beg for campaign donations...

This is at least part of what Harold Finch was trying to prevent with his Machine in (Person of Interest)[0]. Having it have access to all of the data was bad enough, but being able to ask it any question you wanted was always a terrifying proposition. Especially if you then consider what happens when that AI starts doing things on it's own (see Samaritan from the same show).

[0]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839578/

Given the source, no, my first thought was emphatically not "training models," it was -- this crazy bastard is hellbent on world domination. Seriously.

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