I hesitate to upvote you. I agree with like half of what you wrote, but the other half (especially conclusion) I find very wrong.
Corporations indeed work as you described, but strong enough back pressure on social and legal level changes the profitability landscape, and thus corporations will optimize in a way that is less harmful. You're right comparing them to artificial intelligences (i.e. very strong optimization processes) - they don't share humanity's goals, nor they should be expected to. But what we can do is force their goals to align with ours as much as possible.
> But what we can do is force their goals to align with ours as much as possible.
how can we force an entity the size of large corporations to do what we want? we simply can't. look at the broadband problem in america. or bankers golden parachutes. or any of the immoral actions taken by corporations.
they are too large. once they get large enough, they have power over us, not the other way around.
we can only change the legal landscape for now. if we do punish IBM for their involvement in apartheid, what will it change for us now? we already recognise it was wrong. we can discourage others from doing similar actions now, but aside from that, i don't believe there is much else to be done.
Corporations indeed work as you described, but strong enough back pressure on social and legal level changes the profitability landscape, and thus corporations will optimize in a way that is less harmful. You're right comparing them to artificial intelligences (i.e. very strong optimization processes) - they don't share humanity's goals, nor they should be expected to. But what we can do is force their goals to align with ours as much as possible.