>if they actually got to that level of intelligence the tech would have been "acquired" by military/other companies/whoever

I don't doubt that that would be a very real consideration, a pressure out there in the world that anyone developing AI would have to contend with.

I think the problem is with treating this like an inevitability. You are always going to deal with the idiosyncracies of the world: personalities, motivations, contingent world circumstances.

And beyond that, I think we have to keep in mind that this is, after all, fiction. The writers may arbitrarily structure their world in a manner that puts a spotlight on things they feel are interesting. And, within the limits of that spotlight, they may consider things like artificial intelligence in a way that is sincere to the subset of futurist considerations they are interested in investigating. And perhaps that involves suppressing plausible forces we would expect to see, such as military and corporate interest in advanced AI tech.

> plausible

Can't imagine the character played by A. Hopkins would even pick up a phone call from military.

With that kind of tech, they wouldn't allow him the option of choosing. It'd be classified immediately as a national security issue and the government would assert ownership via eminent domain. We do not live in a world where a lone genius would be allowed to do what happens in that show.

Aside from literally nuclear tech, when has a government confiscated tech in this way? What you're describing is completely unprecedented.

It has done so over 5000 times so far just under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act

Wow, I didn't realize that had continued past the second world war.

Even nuclear tech was specially developed with government funding. P and GGP are arguing against the fantasy show because it doesn't behaving according to their own fantasy.

edit: In fact half the time tech moves in the opposite direction. Going onto the internet to argue that potentially civilization-changing technology won't be used largely for entertainment because it'll end up exclusively owned by government shows a profound lack of awareness.

I mean if you start making a nuke the government will come and physically take it away from you :)

AI of that level would be unprecedented and far more dangerous than nukes; to think the government wouldn't interfere would be unrealistic.

I'm sure there's a pitch to be made, but consciousness doesn't seem to me to be a killer app for the military. In fact Dolores repeatedly refuses to kill people even when it's in her best interest. Only one person has died before the last episode, so how could you convince anyone that it's more dangerous than nukes? The other tech in the show seems pretty advanced so I'm sure the military is doing just fine for themselves. And the people are there because outside life is boring, so there's no cold or hot wars where they need an advantage ASAP.

We're discussing what would be realistic in our world, precisely because what's happening in the show is implausible. How Dolores behaves wouldn't be relevant to this conversation.