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Comment by Dig1t | Hacker News Reader

>nationalize everything

The government does not have an incentive to run anything efficiently as they cannot go bankrupt. Imagine if AI was run like the DMV.

Putting monopoly control of it in the hands of government also makes it extremely likely that whoever is in power will use it to manipulate public opinion + elections as well as encoding their political values into it.

What do you think a Trump-controlled AI would say if I asked about the war in Iran? We’ve already seen examples of companies encoding their beliefs into the system (see Gemini saying nuclear war is preferable to misgendering Caitlyn Jenner), imagine how much worse it would be if politicians were given control instead.

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There will always be challenges, as is the case with any system. But I guess I don't really think LLMs will create a bunch of new jobs, so either we look into the future with gloom and doom as we who don't have wealth become part of a permanent underclass as opportunities continue to disappear, or we envision a utopia and work to realize it.

> Imagine if AI was run like the DMV.

I went to the DMV in Oakland and it was the most efficient DMV I'd ever been to.

Does the DMV have a reputation for being fast, efficient, or an enjoyable experience?

Personally I remember waiting for hours in a line wrapped around the building for the chance to take my drivers license test.

Another example: have you ever tried to interact with the IRS? The most nightmarish bureaucratic system I’ve ever had the displeasure of interacting with. And guess what my recourse is for them treating me like garbage? Nothing. A company, if they treat me poorly, I can take my business elsewhere. The IRS? The DMV? Not so much.

> A company, if they treat me poorly, I can take my business elsewhere.

Like Chevron, or Verizon, or Microsoft.

All of those companies are perfect examples of what I’m talking about.

Chevron: Exxon, ConocoPhillips, BP. From a customer perspective there are tons of competitors which make your life better ranging from QT, AMPM, to Buc-ees (a favorite which people literally LOVE to visit).

Verizon: Starlink, TMobile, ATT, Comcast, etc

Microsoft: Apple, Google, Cloudflare, Amazon (differentiates itself literally on quality of customer service)

The IRS or DMV? No competitor. Unhappy with their service? Go fuck yourself.

Your view of the DMV is outdated. There's been work put in around the country to modernize the system. I remember the hour long wait, but online reservations have made my last few visits in recent years take about 15-20 minutes

> Does the DMV have a reputation for being fast, efficient, or an enjoyable experience?

I dunno what reputation it has in your area, but my actual experience with it was indeed fast, efficient, and enjoyable.

This is a very bad example.

The IRS is treating you bureaucratically and poorly because of lobbying from companies and politicians being bribed by said lobbyists.

My point being that you are beholden to a poorly functioning IRS because of capitalism; where companies have lobbied so hard against tax reform and simple filing that it more or less forces you to use their software.

I call the IRS and wait 4 hours on hold waiting to talk to a person. I get disconnected randomly and have to call back the next day only to have to wait another 4 hours. Finally I get in touch with someone and they are extremely rude, unhelpful, and treat me like garbage.

How is this somehow the fault of “capitalism”? Regardless of how the system is structured, the government has a near-infinite budget, they could theoretically staff the agency with enough people to answer my call in a timely manner. They could also train their staff to treat me with human dignity. They don’t do this, and the reason is that they have no incentive to do so. If I am upset by being treated poorly what recourse do I have? Nothing. In fact if I ignore their system long enough, armed goons will show up with guns and arrest me.

There are many examples of government agencies that have this reputation, not only in the USA but the entire world.

“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” -Charlie Munger

IRS has been starved of resources following the "starve the beast" playbook.

Also the only reason we have to pay for Turbotax (etc) is due to lobbying. We had IRS Direct File for two years and it was great before being gutted by the current administration.

Prior to Republicans demanding the Post Office fund retirements in advance and various other hamstringing to other services US government was ridiculously efficient

They had to pass legislation to intentionally fuck the books to make them inefficient to fit their preferred narrative because government could be held accountable for inefficiency in ways private corps cannot.

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