The best way to future-proof Future Around & Find Out is to become a paid subscriber. Please consider it. Thanks!
The AI narrative shifting… Jobs apocalypse? What jobs apocalypse!? Who said that was coming?
There's been a noticeable shift from the AI titans recently. Turns out (shocker!) the world isn't responding well to being told we'll all be out of a job soon. And Silicon Valley is waking up to the fact that they need more popular support — both for the data centers they hope to build quickly and also for their upcoming IPOs. Meanwhile, the AI outrage is building.
This week in AI anxiety:
Students boo a commencement speaker who mentioned AI
Gallup reports that 71% of Americans are opposed to new data centers (with 48% “strongly opposed”)
Meta employees are miserable as another round of (AI-driven, so they say) layoffs approach
This week in trying to change the narrative:
Andreessen Horowitz publishes “The ‘AI Job Apocalypse’ Is a Complete Fantasy” and explains why the “the claim that AI will produce economy-wide, permanent unemployment is unhelpful marketing, bad economics, and worse history.” And I find it very instructive that this list (and every list is an ordered list whether you admit it or not) begins with the concern that this is “unhelpful marketing.” (To the piece’s credit, it gets pretty wonky with charts and graphs from there.)
Meanwhile, you know what’s helpful to marketing? Spending a gazillion dollars to get your message out. To wit: The New York Times reports that Andreessen Horowitz is the biggest spender so far in this midterm election cycle, spending $115M to promote AI, crypto, and other founder-friendly initiatives.
Kwaku and I try to make sense of these pieces of data and “anecdata” on this week’s “FAFO Friday.” Come future around with us…
Also, kind of burying the lede here, but I walked a red carpet this week as a “Best Technology Podcast” winner at the Webby Awards! Here’s the selfie I took (I’ve yet to see the photos any of the phalanx of photographers snapped).
Don’t let the future down!
That’s my five-word Webby speech and I’m sticking to it. It’s honestly been a great new mantra for the show and something I tell myself when I need a pick me up.
Future on…
~ Dan
If you don’t already get Future Around & Find Out emails, go ahead: