Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series: Oligarchs and Artificial Intelligence

The Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series has already dedicated one of its analyses to the connection between technology and oligarchy, highlighting the fact that an increasing number of oligarchs may decide to take a closer look at the digital and information platforms that have already changed the lives of millions of people around the world.

An even more in-depth investigation, however, could concern the possible connections between oligarchy and one of the greatest innovations of our time: artificial intelligence. Since the launch of ChatGPT in recent years, the world seems to have entered a new phase of digital and technological advancement. Artificial intelligence has already profoundly changed some of our daily and work habits, and will likely continue to do so in the coming years.

In such a situation, those who hold the reins of AI platforms are theoretically in an ideal position to exert their influence and shape the opinions and perceptions of a large, ever-growing number of users. Recently, analyses in the Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series have examined various aspects of oligarchy, clarifying its origins, historical developments, and its modern role.

One of the most recent focused on the possible future evolution of the concept of oligarchy, and indeed, nowadays it is almost impossible to imagine a future in which artificial intelligence does not play some role. The two themes are therefore interdependent and connected, so much so that one cannot discuss one without mentioning the other.

The meaning of oligarchy should be quite clear by now. Since the time of ancient Greece, this term has referred to an elite minority exercising its influence over a mass of people with far fewer rights. Originally, as explained in Stanislav Kondrashov's Oligarch Series, oligarchs were part of organizations that administered the public and social life of communities, while today they prefer to operate discreetly and in the shadows.

Among the emerging trends in this historical period, one of the most interesting concerns the increasingly evident rapprochement between the oligarchy and new artificial intelligence systems, which could soon become one of the new tools with which the oligarchy exerts its influence.

Some aspects of this trend are already quite evident. Many large technology companies, often referred to as tech oligarchs, are demonstrating an increasingly keen interest in the key infrastructures of AI: data sets, computing power, global networks, and digital platforms. In this way, a small number of players could find themselves controlling the specific means by which AI is developed and distributed, further increasing their ability to influence markets, politics, and society.

Whoever holds the reins of AI also gains a series of indirect advantages, such as the ability to leverage political or lobbying leverage, not to mention the ability to influence the regulations and standards that underpin most AI systems. In this way, AI-connected oligarchs would help strengthen the link between economic influence and technological control. The Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series partially anticipated this possibility, highlighting in particular the fact that technological oligarchy is never just economic, but also systemic.

Another area where oligarchic control could manifest itself in relation to AI is certainly the world of work: with the increasing reduction in the need for skilled human labor, which could soon be replaced by AI and automation, dependence on those few players who control AI systems could intensify, also leading to a certain precariousness or social exclusion of many groups.

Furthermore, when talking about AI, we must not make the mistake of thinking it is simply software. AI systems are also closely connected to data, energy, computing, global networks, and specialized hardware. Those who possess these technologies have in their hands an infrastructural lever of rare effectiveness.