“Let’s just say it out loud,” Keith Teare, publisher of the That Was the Week newsletter, says. “AI is not dangerous.” Not all of you will agree. I’m certainly not so sure. But the gruff Yorkshireman is convinced that AI can only benefit humanity. For him, with his scientific faith in historical progress, today’s AI revolution is a glorious combination of the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution. The only danger, he warns, is the belief in danger itself.
Thus his criticism of Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, who has been quite explicit about AI’s dangers — and for whom the doom narrative is, in Keith’s reading at least, designed as a business strategy to solicit governmental backing without government control. Contrast with Hassabis, who acknowledges risk and immediately explains what he’s doing about it. And with Zuckerberg, who doesn’t care about any of it.
AI Is Not Dangerous. Repeat it. Take your ideological medicine. As if you’re in a seminary. Sing it out loud. As if you’re in a choir. Believe it now?
Five Takeaways
• The Economist’s Lowlife Moment. A forty-five-minute video on how to control the men who control AI. Judging the AI industry by its CEOs is like judging a film by the leading actor’s personality. It’s the wrong focus — and a low one for a publication that should know better.
• AI Is Not Dangerous. Full Stop. Not a little, not potentially — just not dangerous. The doom narrative is media-driven, fed by CEOs who give it too much airtime. America trusts AI least of any country. Paradoxically, it’s also the country where media has the most influence.
• Amodei’s Pitch Disguised as Science. The message — we might make you all unemployed and quite possibly kill you — is not science. It’s a pitch for Anthropic: AI is too dangerous to leave to anyone else, so trust us. Hassabis does it better: acknowledge risk, take responsibility, explain what you’re doing about it.
• Consensus Capital and Winner-Take-All. 75% of VC raised goes to five funds. 75% of VC invested goes into five companies. AI will centralise power at unprecedented scale. The question — how does society benefit? — is the most important question of the era. Altman and Musk at least try to answer it.
• Manifest Agency. Lean In. Keith’s advice to young people who distrust AI: get involved and shape it, because the alternative is to be a victim of whatever arrives without you. A world without agency is a world where elected officials are accountable to no one.
About the Guest
Keith Teare is a British-American entrepreneur, investor, and publisher of the That Was the Week newsletter. He is a co-founder of TechCrunch.
References
That Was the Week newsletter by Keith Teare: thatwa.st
“How to Control the Men Who Control AI,” The Economist, April 2026
John Thornhill, “AI Has an Awful Image Problem,” Financial Times, April 2026
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Chapters:
00:00:31 The Economist’s cult-of-personality video: the catalyst
00:01:40 Stewart Alsop on Altman: one of the worst CEOs, but honest
00:03:28 Does the CEO even matter? The structural argument
00:06:13 The Economist’s “lowlife” moment: judging film by the actor
00:07:21 Keith’s editorial: what we should be judging instead
00:09:43 The doom narrative as business strategy: Amodei vs Hassabis
00:12:39 Marx, dark consequences, and the agricultural revolution
00:14:32 The Molotov cocktail: media frenzy and a “slightly ill 20-year-old”
00:16:16 The Stanford AI Index: America trusts AI least
00:17:47 AI is not dangerous. Let’s just say it out loud.
00:20:01 Does Keith contradict himself? On CEOs and sentiment
00:23:52 Steve Jobs and the contrarian CEO who matters
00:25:07 Hassabis vs Amodei: 90% building, 10% guardrails
00:26:06 Young people, TikTok, and why broad statements are wrong
00:27:54 Consensus capital: 75% of VC in 5 funds
00:29:48 Sophie Haigney, Daniel Bell, and the ideology of agency
00:30:49 Get involved. Shape it. Manifest agency.
00:33:47 Anthropic’s rise: the Mythos non-release and the $850bn question
00:37:31 Noah Smith: winner-take-all and the two companies that remain
00:39:06 How does society benefit? The question of the era