“I trust them to kiss the government’s ass. I don’t trust them to serve me.” — Keith Teare
Who to trust in an age of AI agents? Especially when it seems as if these swarming agents — akin to the gang of adolescents in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies — are developing minds of their own.
At this week’s G20 Innovation Ministerial in North Carolina, Donald Trump and his minions produced a hands-off charter for AI. Known as the “Carolina Principles,” it sounds to critics like a particularly unprincipled justification for regulation-free AI.
That Was The Week publisher, Keith Teare, however, isn’t a critic of Trump’s Principles. Don’t trust the trust scare, Keith tells us. Especially all the fear around the swarming agents that are supposedly developing minds of their own. Pooh-poohing the real-world Hugging Face breakout, Keith argues that since he’s never witnessed swarming agents on his computer, they can’t exist. Which is akin, I suspect, to a climate denier who argues that global warming is a hoax because it happens to be chilly outside. All-too-human logic, I fear, in our age of autonomous AI agents.
Five Takeaways
• The Carolina Principles. Trump hijacked a G20 in North Carolina — Russian finance minister included — and produced a hands-off AI charter everyone signed. A propaganda event, Keith concedes, with the right conclusion.
• Don’t Trust the Trust Scare. Keith’s thesis: trust comes from use, not authority — and 70% of Americans now use AI. The withheld ChatGPT-6? “I trust them to kiss the government’s ass. I don’t trust them to serve me.”
• The Swarming Fight. Roose and Dean Ball — no doomers — warn about the Hugging Face hack and self-sovereign AI. Keith: lab experiments, science fiction, “I know BS when I read it.” Andrew: “you’re trivializing.” Unresolved.
• Nvidia Buys Hugging Face. $13 billion for the home of open-source AI, as corporate America gets hooked. The central bank of AI wins whether the future is open or closed.
• Mom and Dad’s Money. Fewer than 50 companies will return venture this cycle; 75% of last month’s VC dollars went to Andreessen Horowitz — and the pyramid runs down to pension funds betting on the Anthropic IPO.
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
Read That Was The Week: thatwastheweek.com
Chapters:
00:00:31 Introduction: back from Italy, mistrust in the air
00:01:44 The G20 in North Carolina: a Trump takeover
00:03:07 The one thing Keith likes about this administration
00:04:32 The Carolina Principles: trust without licenses
00:05:23 Bernie Sanders and the licensing threat
00:06:53 Americans love AI, hate data centers
00:09:49 The real problem: not enough data centers
00:11:30 Off-grid: data centers as net givers of power
00:12:06 Wacky races: OpenAI’s Astra and the AGI claim
00:13:20 ChatGPT-6: launched but withheld
00:15:17 Where does trust come from? Use
00:16:40 The swarming fight: Roose, Ball, and the Hugging Face hack
00:19:02 Self-sovereign AI: inevitable or BS?
00:21:15 Corporate America gets hooked on open source
00:21:40 Nvidia buys Hugging Face for $13 billion
00:22:54 The central bank of AI
00:25:14 Should we trust Nvidia?
00:26:24 Who gets rich from Anthropic’s IPO?
00:27:58 75% to Andreessen: the great VC concentration
00:30:54 What can go wrong: secondaries and the deck of cards
00:32:37 The age of anxiety: AI as companion — and doctor
00:34:58 Feeling sorry for Bernie
00:36:18 That was the week