Technologists to AI Cheerleaders: Stop Being So Creepy

These days, AI is definitely near the peak of the hype cycle, when pronouncements about a new technology reach their most fevered pitch. But even given that reality, CEOs of AI companies and other assorted AI boosters have been saying a lot of creepy and extreme stuff lately. Some of these comments are just overenthusiastic salesmanship. Earlier this year, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for example, predicted that AI would be writing 90 percent of all code in six months. That’s clearly not coming true. But other predictions are just scary. Amodei also warned that AI would eliminate 50 percent of white-collar jobs within five years. Fortune has a whole roundup of terrifying remarks from OpenAI boss Sam Altman. Sample comment: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority.” There are also the peculiar cases of AI diehards who see the technology in spiritual terms. One former Google AI engineer started an AI-worshipping church. Elon Musk is admittedly not the most reliable narrator, but according to him, Google co-founder Larry Page wants to create “basically digital god.” For everyday nontechnical people, these comments are creepy but also confusing. How much of this should we take seriously? A handful of fascinating recent blog posts and newsletters offer some reassuring answers. The vast majority of those in the trenches building AI view such comments as deeply unhelpful and inaccurate. Those who know it best wish everyone would talk about AI like a “normal technology.” What AI technologists think The first of these reports comes from seasoned entrepreneur and tech industry executive Anil Dash. On his blog recently, he highlighted the huge gap between how AI company bosses and influencers talk about AI and how those building the technology talk about it. Those with technical roles but lower public profiles share “an extraordinary degree of consistency in their feelings about AI,” claims Dash. He sums up their stance like this: “Technologies like LLMs have utility, but the absurd way they’ve been over-hyped, the fact they’re being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value.” As evidence, Dash cites his conversations with his many friends and contacts within the industry. He also links to this lengthy paper by Princeton AI experts Arvind Naryanan and Sayash Kapoor. It argues we should treat AI as a normal, if revolutionary, technology like electricity or the internet, not some “potentially superintelligent entity.” Is not being an AI booster bad for your career? AI engineers know, it is possible to build AI that is not centralized in the hands of a few big companies, that treats the creators of content used to train these models fairly, and that isn’t terrible for the environment. They also understand that a reasonable public discussion about AI is necessary to achieve these aims. But many are afraid to speak out publicly, Dash claims. “Mid-level managers and individual workers who know this is the common-sense view on AI are concerned that simply saying that they think AI is a normal technology like any other, and should be subject to the same critiques and controls, and be viewed with the same skepticism and care, fear for their careers,” he writes. On her blog, programmer Gina Trapani seconds this view. She too says that a more reasonable discussion of AI can be bad for career advancement. Her most AI literate friends are also the people with the most sober view of AI’s potential and pitfalls. “The majority of people who work with and in technology hold a moderate view of AI, as any other normal technology with valid use cases and real problems that need to be fixed,” she writes. But, she continues, “tech people don’t talk about measured AI enough (probably because they want to keep their job).” Stop being creepy about AI! Both Trapani and Dash’s take home message is directed at those tasked with explaining AI to the general public. You can feel Dash virtually screaming through his keyboard at the Altmans and Amodeis of the world and their many imitators when he writes: “Stop being so goddamn creepy and weird about the technology! It’s just tech, everything doesn’t have to become some weird religion that you beat people over the head with, or gamble the entire stock market on.” “It’s creepy to tell people they’ll lose their jobs if they don’t use AI. It’s weird to assume AI critics hate progress and are resisting some inevitable future,” Trapani admonishes. But there is a takeaway here for everyday entrepreneurs too. If you worry that AI hype is badly overblown and discussions of the technology would be more helpful if everyone just calmed down, you are far from alone. The vast majority of AI engineers apparently agree with you. Hopefully, that will empower you to push back against overheated hype and have more level-headed conversations about AI with those in your professional circle. EXPERT OPINION BY JESSICA STILLMAN @ENTRYLEVELREBEL