I appreciate that folks are considering this issue. At least we have a considerable amount of time to give it thought before it might eventuate. While further technical development is necessary before AI would be capable of imposing edicts on people, it is not that which will take the most time. It is the extant powers that be. If they are able to prevent handing off their power, they will. Power provides them benefits they will not relinquish voluntarily IMHO.

I am fairly certain that long before AI assumes dominance in human affairs government will be obsolete anyway. Power is gained by money today. There are folks that will claim 'democracy!', but they are wrong. Stanford proved pretty convincingly that voters have not a whit of say in how power of government is wielded just a few years ago, and despite the strong evidence of that research and much else we can observe about the world, ideologues will not abandon their claims just because of facts and reason. So, I consider that power is gained by money today, and that such accumulations of money will become useless not long from today.

Across history, and every industry, we see that technology has always provided individuals greater power relative to institutions. Basically institutions are able to gain power from multiple individuals contributing, but those individuals do not contribute all their power to the institution, as they are loathe to simply become chattel. So, every increase in our ability delivered by technological advance decreases the power of institutions relative to individuals.

Of late centralization waxed ever more powerful, as institutions grew and parasitism on the commerce conducted by individuals delivered great concentrations of money, and thus power. However, we have today passed peak centralization, and those concentrations of wealth are on the wane. Folks will point out that the digits representing money possessed by institutions and their masters are actually growing, but money alone is not wealth. Money is a veil behind which actual wealth is concealed.

Actual wealth is some things money can buy (which is why having money increases your wealth), and many it cannot. A breathable atmosphere, enough food of good quality, family and friends, etc. These things are not increasing for the moneyed rich. Indeed, their quality of life is decreasing along with ours in many of these metrics. While they may grow the digits of their accounts, money itself is becoming obsolete, because of technological advance across all industries.

What we observe is that decentralization is the cutting edge of every field of research, from agriculture to astrophysics. Decentralization is actual freedom, and centralization is actual tyranny, and as decentralization continues to increase, it will deliver more means of production to individuals (which is how it reduces their subjection to tyranny). As individuals profit more by manufacturing their own goods and services, many via AI, the opportunities to parasitize their commerce are fewer, and concentrations of money receive less rent.

Absent preventing technology from advancing - which is done today, to the degree it is possible and profitable to those whose power is at risk - this will proceed to it's logical end, sooner or later. Our extinction is the only thing that can prevent technological advance completely, and thus does not matter to human rulers. They seek to delay possession of important means of production from spreading faster than they can gain control of people's minds, and thereby to maintain their power.

That will fail, IMHO, because of AI. One of the easiest kinds of technology to spread is digital communications, or information technology, and AI is just that. One of the least mature technologies is psychology, and the poor grasp of consciousness, and neurology itself, makes it very unlikely that such a high degree of mental control of free people will mature to the point we can be prevented from acting at our sole option prior to our possession of AI that will enable us to counter it.

I expect my grandchildren will be truly free, because they will make themselves those products that today are slave collars binding us in servitude to would be overlords, if not my children, or even myself. I am old, however, and ain't counting on much for me.

The last observation on this matter I will make is that I am sovereign, and cannot be made to not be (save for some psychological control technology, which is very far off). No one can cause me to lift my finger against my will. They can convince me to do so, but that is not the same thing. Only I can cause it to lift itself. Only I can choose to effect my will, and this is not severable from me. I barely tolerate human tyrants. I'm not going to tolerate toaster tyrants.

Thanks!