The Deployment Question

The deployment question is this book's final framing of the AI challenge: toward what ends will the second cognitive surplus be directed, by whom, and for whose benefit? The question is not answered by the technology. Every surplus in human history has presented the same question. The Agricultural Revolution produced a surplus of food that could have been distributed broadly but for most of twelve thousand years was captured by elites. The Industrial Revolution produced a surplus of goods that could have been distributed broadly from the beginning but for the first century was captured by factory owners. The first cognitive surplus produced a surplus of participation that could have been deployed entirely toward civic and collective purposes but was in significant part captured by platforms whose business model depended on engagement rather than value. The historical pattern is unambiguous: the default deployment of a surplus is capture by the actors best positioned to capture it, not distribution toward the