Friday, October 11, 2019

Learning to drive

There isn't a Tesla autopilot in each Model 3. There is just one, cloned across all models on the road. And Tesla owners are all teaching it to drive.  There are more than 600k Model 3's with autopilot on the roads, all collecting data to improve the autopilot's intelligence. While autopilot isn't as smart as a person, it has had far more driving "experience" (about 16 billion mile) than any single human driver, which will eventually make it safer than the safest human driver.

The need for AI's to gather oodles of data to perform well creates an enormous network externality. As more products incorporate AI, the data economies of scale will turn competitive markets into create winner-take-all industries which without antitrust regulation will mean a series of uncompetitive monopolies. Google is already at that point in search. Only where function follows fashion, for example in social media will industries see the unseating of incumbents.  For free market enthusiasts that presents a problem. It's time to create an government entity to deal with market power and concentration.   

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