Hey there, it’s Rachyl Jones from the tech team. So, we had a pretty interesting event happen this week at the WSJ Tech Live conference. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the stage and shared his thoughts on artificial general intelligence and how it could help us solve all sorts of problems. He’s optimistic about the future and believes that in 10 years, people will wonder why we didn’t embrace this technology sooner.
Now, this talk reminded me of something that happened the day before. Venture capitalist and billionaire Andreessen wrote this 5,200-word manifesto all about how technology will solve all of humanity’s problems. It got a lot of attention, but not exactly for the right reasons. People criticized it for lacking data, historical context, and alternative perspectives. Some even called it culty and misguided. Yeah, it didn’t quite hit the mark.
Back to Altman. He had to address some controversial topics at the conference, like OpenAI’s safety features and how the job market will change with AI. But while his points were similar to Andreessen’s, they didn’t cause as much uproar. Altman took a different approach, saying that it’s not enough to just give people government payments for innovation. He’s got a point there, and it’s just easier to digest.
Now, let’s talk about AI fears. At the TED AI conference, Andrew Ng, who’s a big name in AI research, acknowledged those fears but assured everyone that AI is not the problem, but the solution. He called out the critics and said, “You’re wrong!”
You know, this reminded me of Andreessen’s manifesto. He starts it off by saying, “We are being lied to.” That kind of optimism doesn’t leave any room for questions or doubts. It’s like blind faith. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can be techno-optimists and still recognize the risks that come with technology. We can work to address those risks instead of treating anyone who acknowledges them as enemies.
In other news, Jon Stewart and Apple are having a little tiff. Apple TV Plus is losing Stewart because he didn’t want to align his views about AI and China with Apple’s. That’s a big loss for them. And speaking of big moves, network neutrality might be making a comeback in the U.S. The FCC voted in favor of reinstating the rules, which were scrapped under Trump. We’ll have to wait until next year for the final decision.
Oh, and Instagram made a major blunder with its auto-translation. It added the word “terrorist” to the translation of user bios that contained the word “Palestinian.” Yikes! They’ve apologized, though, and fixed the issue.
Alright, that’s it for today. Thanks for tuning in! Send us your thoughts and suggestions, we always love hearing from you. And remember, stay curious, my friends!
