Why are the companies warning us about AI also racing to build more of it?
Why are the companies warning us about AI also racing to build more of it? And what is all this intelligence doing to us?
This week:
→ OpenAI paused its latest model over safety concerns, then launched always-on agents ("Dots"), ChatGPT-6.1 Sol with near-frontier intelligence at a fraction of the cost.
→ Anthropic, the lab most associated with AI safety, filed an IPO prospectus: revenue up 12X to $4.6B, +$500B in planned infra commitments, targeted valuation +$2T.
→ The Wall Street Journal found heavy AI users pick up AI phrasing: "load-bearing," "smoking gun," and more.
This feels like we have one foot on the brake and one on the accelerator. Meanwhile, the passengers are changing without realizing it.
Here's the tension →
1\ Dangerous + essential.
The public sees the finished product. BUT frontier AI company insiders see raw unreleased capabilities up close. That view is why they choose to warn about risk. So why keep building? Yes, economics and incentives play a role. BUT they can also see how much good this technology can do.
2\ Caution + acceleration.
OpenAI paused one model and shipped a wave of new products in the same week. That is the pattern now. Safety calls get made model by model, while the overall pace keeps rising.
Part of the reason: the cat is out of the bag. Open-weight models are widespread and getting more capable every quarter, including in the hands of cyber attackers and other bad actors. Slowing the frontier would NOT slow them down. The case for speed is that defenders need the most capable tools first.
3\ Adoption + adaptation.
We adopt the tools, and without noticing, we adapt to them. For example, search changed what we bother to remember. AI is now shaping how we speak and think, often before we notice.
So, where is this all going?
→ The cost of intelligence is and will keep falling.
→ Near-frontier capability at a fraction of the price is already here.
→ Anyone with a question and an idea has world-class intelligence on tap.
→ The advantage shifts to people who know what to ask for and how to execute.
→ This is a both a new skill-set and an elevation of existing skill-sets.
I have been writing about substitution and reinvention for five years. Substitution creates capacity. Reinvention determines what that capacity becomes. AND, the most important reinvention happens inside us.
I've said this before I will say it again, we have three futures in superposition right now:
a) The Borg = we get assimilated; b) WALL-E = we get too comfortable; c) Star Trek = we get amplified.
The Borg and WALL-E futures happens by default. The Star Trek future is what happens by design, by choice, and by action.
Google DeepMind's Noble Prize winning work with AlphaFold, AI-powered discoveries in math, medicine, and more. I see this as a the Star Trek future, arriving one breakthrough at a time.
The frontier will keep moving, what it does to us is in our hands. Borg, WALL-E or Star Trek, which one are you choosing?
Until next time,
Ram
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Ram Srinivasan
MIT Alum | Author, The Conscious Machine | Global Future of Work and AI Adoption Leader published in Business Insider, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, MIT Executive Viewpoints and more.
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Disclaimer:
Ram Srinivasan currently serves as an Innovation Strategist and Transformation Leader, authoring groundbreaking works including "The Conscious Machine" and the upcoming "The Substrate Shift."
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