Models are getting more efficient and hardware is getting more powerful, it's completely feasible that open source, self hosted, GPT4 equivalent and better models will be completely viable to run as individuals for reasonable costs (hundreds, not thousands) in the not too distant future.

As always, the will and knowledge to use the tools falls to the individual.

@Xerxos no, and i don't mean to be all hand-wavey and say 'oh AI isn't a problem because it's open source' BUT, it does give me some vague hope because an increasing number of really good models are being open sourced and lots of people not working for shitty corporations are having a lot of success with non-corporate AI models so... i dunno, some good could come of it?
some bad could be mitigated? maybe?

@Croquette yeah, i feel like if today, someone invented a cure for cancer, it would be weaponized as leverage against some group/country
it's alot to do with the political state of the world which is a lot to do with enduring oligarchies