This essay argues that the discourse around superintelligence, largely shaped by the same companies building the technology, functions as a mechanism that reframes concrete questions about corporate accountability, worker displacement, and algorithmic bias into abstract philosophical debates about consciousness and control. It notes the apparent contradiction of executives who warn of existential AI risk while simultaneously racing to build the systems they describe as dangerous. The piece contends that the central political question is not whether superintelligent AI will emerge, but who gets to decide what kinds of AI systems are built, arguing this decision should be subject to democratic contestation rather than left to corporate actors.
