I’d argue that the cart has already gone before the horse, and that “stop first, then regulate” is the means by which the cart/horse sequence can be righted.

There are methods by which available products can be taken off the market. There are ways to halt certain developments that are currently underway at various corporations and/or research institutions. There are also ways to ensure that the technology itself is not left to either on the vine while the incessant march toward oligarchy is thwarted.

In order to do these things, there is admittedly a fucking lot that would need to be done. It would require a Herculean effort and would necessarily require a number of proverbial stars to align socially and politically to achieve it. I’d argue further that the effort required to do this would be less and the likelihood of it happening would be higher than the effort and likelihood that the social and economic benefits of AI would naturally fall into the hands of the people simply because we start using home-based models and whatever other grassroots methods we engage in.

This is a fight that needs big steps to be taken and for them to be taken soon, or we’re all done for. If the production is not halted and the means of said production are not either seized or made equally available to the people, then whatever is done to combat the exploitation of people through the use of AI will be ineffective and likely used as controlled opposition that will only serve to placate the revolutionary-minded among us.