Nothing empowers “experts” better than media ballyhooed claims of existential threats. From weapons of mass destruction to global terrorism to climate change to bank failures, killer viruses, disinformation, and gender dysphoria, each time the media gens up a round of hysteria experts rush to the fore.

It makes no difference that experts keep enabling governments to impose cures worse than the disease. Historians can always clean up the mess later, shifting the blame elsewhere. “It could have been worse!”

The latest monster stalking the land is Artificial Intelligence. Right on cue, MIT Sloan School is calling for a Global AI Observatory (GAIO) modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Under its auspices a group of trustworthy elites will monitor and manicure The Science in order to help wise leaders of responsible governments save us.

“The greatest risk now is multiple unconnected efforts,” the Director of MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence warns. Because people get smarter when herded into clamoring mobs, and showering money on experts and the institutions that house them is the wisest way to spend tax dollars. With 20% of MIT’s faculty working on climate change it’s time for other experts to board the gravy train.