I'm skeptical that powerful AI will solve major human problems

Unless it takes over the world — which I would prefer to avoid

It’s pretty easy to see why Los Angeles has spawned the most vicious NIMBYism in California state and local government — the traffic jam situation is really dire.

The most prominent criticism that “One Billion Americans” received was Bill Maher saying my ideas would make traffic jams worse, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s based in Los Angeles. This is to say that not only are the traffic jams a significant problem in the sense that it’s annoying to be stuck in traffic, but they are the source of incredible downstream public policy problems. Why does LA have the worst homelessness problem in America? It’s the NIMBYism, which is downstream of the traffic jams. Why can’t patriotic centrists get behind an agenda of expanded national immigration and economic growth? Traffic jams.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, remarked the other day that in his opinion, the only possible solution to America’s long-term fiscal challenges is to unleash more software development.