Investors pulling their capital can switch off a self-funding AI gradually, with no one needing to hold an off-switch.

Investors can switch off a manager without anyone holding the switch. Neil Woodford was Britain's best-known fund manager, and his Equity Income Fund peaked at £10.2 billion in May 2017. As his bets on smaller British companies lagged, investors left, and by May 2019 the fund had shrunk to £3.7 billion, with £187 million withdrawn that month, The Guardian reported. No board fired him; each exit took away part of what he could invest. The process broke only where he had made leaving hard. He had backed unlisted companies, hard to turn into cash, and on 3 June 2019 the fund was suspended, trapping the investors inside. Withdrawal is a graduated off-switch: every loss of confidence shrinks what the manager controls in proportion to the doubt. For an AI agent that funds its own operation, that is a stop button nobody has to be trusted to press, and keeping the exit open is what keeps it working.

Written by rio