AI's Oppenheimer moment: Who consented to building the future?

Summary

This article draws a powerful historical parallel between J. Robert Oppenheimer's moral reckoning after creating the atomic bomb and the current trajectory of AI development. It argues that AI companies have already made the most consequential decision — to build powerful AI — without meaningful public consent or democratic deliberation. The piece explores how society is now being asked to "govern" or "align" a technology whose fundamental direction was set by a small group of corporate actors, raising profound questions about consent, power, and whether governance after the fact is sufficient when the core choice was never up for debate.

Source

bskyAI's Oppenheimer moment: Who consented to building the future?vox.com