A week in AI is like a year in other industries. I hope these issues become your weekly source of AI information, inspiration, and ideas. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about AI, the current zeitgeist, and the fascinating folks who are building in this brave new world.
People really hate AI right now
Something weird is happening in the AI world right now. It’s easy to assume everyone is enamored by AI, if you get all your information from Reddit and X.
AI bleeds into every conversation, even in unlikely places like New York bathhouses, rave parties, and park hangs. Maybe that’s part of the problem: there’s no escaping it.
According to new Pew Research Center findings, 50% of Americans are more concerned than excited about AI. It’s impacting the ability to think creatively and form meaningful relationships. There are places where people are more pessimistic than others. For example, while innovation is welcomed in medical fields, it’s feared in education and corporate.
AI experts are more optimistic than the general public. No surprises there, just follow the money. NBC recently surveyed a group and found that 46% of respondents had an AI distaste – even more so than ICE and Trump.
The article cited the white-collar unemployment catastrophe, AI addiction, environment impact and data centers as the leading concerns. The biggest chatbot in the world – OpenAI – said it would never use its system to spy on users.
They also said that ads would be a “last resort.” We all know how that went.
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Platform growth, as sentiment drops
All the while these LLMs are growing in users and AI agents are all the rage. ChatGPT reached 900 million weekly users in February. OpenAI and Anthropic are planning to go public.
This week, The Verge reported that a 20-year-old man was arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail (a glass bottle filled with a flammable substance) at Sam Altman’s house – and was later spotted outside the OpenAI SF office.
According to SFGate, the man told security he intended to burn the site and kill people inside. While this incident is indicative of the individual’s mental health state, it could be a sign of the societal upheaval we might see.
AI leaders are calling for “solutions” like a public wealth fund, switching to a four-day workweek, and changes to payroll taxes in favor of taxing automation.
As a millennial who was promised economic prosperity so long as I went to school, picked a good career and worked hard. That wasn’t necessarily a lie, but it’s certainly not the truth anymore.
Subconsciously, this might be part of the malaise. At least for millennials.
The responsibility for AI founders
I speak to a lot of AI founders for this newsletter. They’re pragmatic, levelheaded and optimistic about the sector.
Many are striking out on their own and replacing their salaries with their no-code software ideas. One founder even built the infrastructure for AI apps and products to make money from day one.
We need to hear more stories of people building at the ground level, rather than the news. With every big conglomerate doing layoffs due to AI, we should spotlight the thousands of individuals and small teams generating revenue with AI.
I do believe AI founders have a responsibility to be vocal about the good and the bad of AI – what they’re seeing behind the scenes, how that’s changing their economics and market.
There should be more public dialogue, not top-down policies that leave individuals helpless and voiceless. Curate these conversations within the team and extend out to your customers and market.
How's the depth of today's edition?
If one of these stories stuck with you, I’d love to hear which one.
Speak soon,
Amanda
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