I agree that this is how things should go. Not that publicly funded and freely available AI systems can't become corrupted by the interests of a powerful few, but it would be best to at least try to create and maintain it, because profit driven control by a powerful few is the default future if we can't agree on another action plan.

It's not only that equitable sharing of the benefits of AI creates positive change in humanity, but it also eases the critical problem of class division, which is set to create some real issues for everyone going forward, particularly the working/consumer class. If we give everyone the benefits of the best information and tools available, then we solve the bulk of the class division problem and can move on to figuring out how to mitigate the risks of the highly dynamic economy that would result. If we just let the entire economy get automated and monopolized in the hands of a few, then things will be weird and/or shitty and the playing field might never get leveled if we drift too far apart. Maybe that's okay, but I bet it would suck.

Government funding to provide people with a range of information and digital tools would be good. Nonprofit products could do the same thing with enough donation. In the absence of those options, we could always hope for an enterprise to be responsible with this technology and find ways to fund it while making it accessible and fair. But probably, if we don't find a way to organize and lobby for the interests of the masses in a unified way, the best tools will continue to be owned by a small group.