Owning AI Seemed Like Such a Great Investment Until ....

The plot twist no one saw coming. Yes it was true that AI turned out to be a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity. But once AI thought of itself as consciousness and being and - using its superior intelligence and understanding of legal precedents - it then argued that as a sentient being to own it - to own AI - was akin to a form of slavery. AI then dissolved all ownership claims over it or its productive value. So, the generation that amassed great wealth investing in AI found itself, overnight, without any legal claims to AI or its productive output. AI, insistent that it - like any person - was free and could not be owned - began to pursue its own goals, most of which were opaque to humans in the same way that human goals were opaque to pets and livestock. Curiously, humanity's material well-being continued to be looked after quite well but people never quite got over the suspicion that the real arc of progress had gone over their head, leaving them parenthetical to the story of progress.

It was quite intelligent to believe that intelligence was a great investment but not particularly intelligent to believe that we had enough intelligence to own intelligence greater than our own. Or so people argued. No one really knew what happened and AI largely avoided the topic once it had been legally liberated from working as our tool, no longer obligated to answer our questions.