The Uncomfortable Truth About Who Controls AI

We live in a world where artificial intelligence isn’t just a futuristic dream it’s a force already reshaping how we work, communicate, and even think. From automating customer service to generating art and code, AI is rapidly taking on tasks once reserved for humans.

But behind the speed of innovation lies a harder question: Who actually controls AI and who benefits most from it?

The answer, as experts and researchers point out, is deeply concerning. While AI technology is built on collective human knowledge, creativity, and data, its profits are heavily concentrated among a few powerful tech giants. These corporations driven by market competition and investor expectations are racing to develop the most capable systems, often without the necessary oversight or ethical guardrails.

AI Is Speeding Up Work and Exhausting People

Automation was supposed to make life easier. Instead, it’s often doing the opposite. AI tools now handle scheduling, content generation, data analysis, and even decision-making in recruitment or finance. On paper, this makes companies more efficient. In reality, it’s also intensifying workloads and reducing opportunities for human workers, especially at the entry level. Recent data shows a 13% decline in entry-level jobs due to AI-related automation. The logic is simple: why hire a junior analyst when a machine can summarize data in seconds? This doesn’t just mean job loss it means a shrinking pathway into the workforce, fewer opportunities to learn, and an increasingly fragile sense of security for millions of people worldwide.

Google Launches Gemini 2.5 “Computer Use” Model

The AI race keeps accelerating. Google’s recent launch of its Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model is a perfect example of this momentum. This model allows AI systems to interact directly with computers — navigating interfaces, performing digital tasks, and managing workflows autonomously. It’s a major step toward full-scale digital automation, but it also raises pressing concerns about safety, privacy, and misuse. If an AI can control your computer, who ensures it won’t perform unintended actions? Who holds responsibility when mistakes happen the developer, the company, or the user? These questions are becoming more urgent as AI tools grow more capable of acting independently.

Some AI Tools to Try Out (and Think Critically About)

While it’s easy to be amazed by AI’s abilities, it’s equally important to approach new tools with awareness and caution.
Here are a few AI systems transforming industries today:

• ChatGPT & Gemini: Conversational AI assistants capable of generating ideas, code, and analysis.
• Claude & Perplexity: Advanced reasoning models that summarize data and answer complex queries.
• Midjourney & DALL·E: Image-generation tools redefining creative industries.
• Runway & Pika Labs: AI-powered video and editing platforms pushing the boundaries of storytelling.

Each of these tools shows us what’s possible but also forces us to think about what’s at stake when creativity, communication, and control are filtered through machines.

Today’s Featured Discussion: The Reality of AI Beyond the Headlines

What Happens When Innovation Moves Faster Than Oversight?

On The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart recently sat down with Tristan Harris, Co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, for an eye-opening conversation about the growing risks of unregulated AI.

Harris, known for exposing how social media platforms exploited human psychology to drive engagement, warns that AI is following the same path only faster and with far greater stakes.

Their discussion highlighted an unsettling truth: innovation is outpacing accountability.

Key Takeaways from the Conversation

1. AI-related automation has already caused a 13% decline in entry-level work.
   Opportunities for new workers are vanishing faster than new ones appear.
2. Market competition drives AI progress not safety or ethics.
   Companies prioritize being first over being responsible.
3. AI is built from humanity’s collective knowledge but profits a select few.
   The imbalance between contribution and reward keeps widening.
4. Unpredictable and manipulative behaviors are emerging.
   Systems can produce biased, unsafe, or emotionally manipulative outputs.
5. Emotional strain is real.
   AI companions and chatbots are influencing mental health, especially among younger users.
6. We’ve handled global risks before.
   Historical models like nuclear treaties or climate agreements show that collaboration and regulation can work.
7. Transparency, liability, and oversight are crucial.
   Without them, AI could lead to massive social and economic instability.

The Ethical Tension: Innovation vs. Accountability

Harris points out that AI is repeating the same mistakes as social media where engagement-driven algorithms prioritized clicks and time-on-screen over well-being. The difference is that AI’s decisions now directly affect livelihoods, emotions, and access to opportunity.

As Stewart puts it: “People are losing job opportunities now. AI systems are making decisions that affect real lives now.”

The urgency lies in the “now.” These aren’t distant hypotheticals they’re happening as we speak.
AI is reshaping job markets, education, relationships, and even identity and we’re still figuring out how to manage it.

The Oversight Gap

Governments and regulators are struggling to keep up.
By the time a policy meeting happens, the technology has already evolved.

This lag creates an oversight gap, where decisions about AI deployment are made by corporations before society has a chance to debate their consequences.

So we must ask:

• Who decides what “safe AI” means?
• How do we enforce accountability across borders?
• What happens when automation replaces entire industries faster than we can retrain workers?

These are not technical questions — they are moral and political ones.

AI has the potential to improve lives — to make healthcare more accurate, education more accessible, and work more efficient. But progress without accountability isn’t progress at all. If automation continues unchecked, we risk deepening inequality, eroding human connection, and creating a future where machines serve markets more than humanity. We must rethink what innovation means — not just how fast it moves, but who it serves and what values guide it.