>I can download a dozen LLMs today and run them on my own machine

That's because someone, somewhere, invested money in training the models. You are given cooked fish, not fishing rods.

There was quite a lot of slavery and conquering empires in between the invention of fire and microprocessors, so yes to an extent. Microprocessors haven't put an end to authoritarian regimes or massive wealth inequalities and the corrupting effect that has on politics, unfortunately.

The printing press led to more than a century of religious wars in Europe, perhaps even deadlier than WW2 on a per-capita basis.

20 years ago we all thought that the Internet would democratize information and promote human rights. It did democratize information, and that has had both positive and negative consequences. Political extremism and social distrust have increased. Some of the institutions that kept society from falling apart, like local news, have been dramatically weakened. Addiction and social disconnection are real problems.

Well the industrial revolution lead to the rise of labor unions and socialism as counteracting force against the increased power it gave capital.

So far, I see no grand leftist resurgence to save us this time around.

I’m curious as to why you think this is a good comparison. I hear it a lot but I don’t think it makes as much sense as its promulgators propose. Did fire, the wheel, or any of these other things threaten the very process of human innovation itself? Do you know not see a fundamental difference. People like to say “democratize” all the time but how democratized do you think you would feel if you and anyone you know couldn’t afford a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, much less some hardware and electricity to run your local LLM?