AI elites might hoard intelligence like mercantilists hoarded gold, according to engineer Venkatesh Rao. He makes the argument in an essay on his tech blog "Contraptions."
Rao compares current AI fears to mercantilism, the economic doctrine that came before capitalism. In his account, mercantilists treated wealth like land and gold, which they saw as finite, and counted ordinary people only as labor. Rao argues that many elites now treat intelligence the same way. In this view, intelligence is a scarce and dangerous resource that experts should manage, keep expensive, and withhold from rivals.
According to the essay as summarized here, these elites see openly available AI models as a threat. The report also says some AI executives exploit safety fears for political influence.
Rao offers a different outlook. He points to early capitalism, when people voluntarily worked 300 days a year instead of 250 to buy goods such as tea or sugar. He says AI could trigger something similar. People might think more, not less, because AI makes projects feasible that were previously too hard or too costly. In that case, demand for ideas would grow rather than making people obsolete.
Rao argues that the political focus should be fair access to AI rather than protecting legacy knowledge