Looking for source of quote: "The real purpose of AI is to give the wealthy access to skill without giving the skilled access to wealth." thanks in advance (please note: not in search of commentary at present time)
@gvwilson Doctorow?
@gvwilson @Susan_calvin if this isn't a @pluralistic quote, I suspect Cory knows who said it.
@crystalvisits @gvwilson @Susan_calvin @pluralistic
As much as I love Cory, this one is Christopher Penn, who wrote:
“AI gives wealth access to skill while denying skill access to wealth.” in a post in 2024, which is widely quoted on LinkedIn and Reddit, but for which I cannot find a definitive source without going to a real computer because I’m an Old and mobile is too small. 😂
Aug 2, 2026, 7:38 PM@MissConstrue @crystalvisits @gvwilson @Susan_calvin @pluralistic The earliest source I can find is this.. however he doesn't explicitly claim authorship, only 'it was said' (I'm assuming the reference to the bad place is X, which is where my sleuthing abilities end..)
@tony I don't have an X account, so I'm walled out of searching on the site. Plus, I don't want to get X cooties on me. Ewh.
@gvwilson I can't be sure but it seems to be someone called Joseph Browning who wrote that on Facebook (10 July 2024).
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=7928550407181386&id=100000795174948
Cited from for example these places:
The only specific-looking citation I have found is "Joseph Browning via Facebook (10 July 2024) cited by jeffowski on Mastodon & Twitter" as listed at
https://psacot.com/2026/03/01/ai_purpose/
@gvwilson
This ^^^ !!!
(Fable) Traced the "AI lets wealth access skill while denying the skilled access to wealth" line, since nobody who shares it ever does.
Original: Joseph Browning, 10 July 2024, Twitter — "The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from skill the ability to access wealth."
twitter.com/Joseph_Browning/status/1811022092176933325
Chain: Browning → @jeffowski (who admits he "simply copied a throwaway from a friend") → Reid Southen QT → Reddit → your feed, wording mutating at every hop. Even the viral version isn't Browning's — jeffowski changed "from skill" to "from the skilled."
And Browning isn't an economist or a tech critic. He's a tabletop RPG designer — Expeditious Retreat Press, Of course the sharpest line about AI's political economy came from TTRPG publishing: their illustrators and cartographers were displaced first. He watched it from the loading dock, not the observation deck.
A quote about the skilled losing access to wealth, whose skilled and entirely findable author lost the attribution within a week. It demonstrates itself.
Edit: For a tweet this influential, the metrics show that particular post must be shadow banned by Felon himself!
@n_dimension
Wonderful: “A quote about the skilled losing access to wealth, whose skilled and entirely findable author [Browning] lost the attribution within a week. It demonstrates itself.”
@gvwilson This comes from Joseph Browning, who posted it to twitter in July 2024 » https://x.com/joseph_browning/status/1811022092176933325
@gvwilson Joseph Browning’s website » http://josephbrowning.blogspot.com/ should you wish to contact
@gvwilson A bit surprised Quote Investigator hasn’t done a deep dive on this one. Perhaps request it? https://quoteinvestigator.com
@gvwilson I cannot seem to easily locate this Joseph Browning in the fediverse. If anyone knows his location I would be glad to follow. 🙏🏻
Aug 3, 2026, 4:46 AM@gvwilson is this acct also you? https://mastodon.social/@GreWilson
@aleciabatson nope - just reported to site administrator.
Aug 3, 2026, 1:10 AM
@gvwilson probably Dan Brooks. Journalist