“We shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us.” — Marshall McLuhan (attributed)

Who gets to tell the AI story? A movie, a media company or Marshall McLuhan?
1. The movie: the AI doc, How I Became an Apocaloptimist, which That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare dismissed because it failed to define AI.
2. A media company: OpenAI bought the streaming show TBPN for hundreds of millions of dollars in a move that is akin to Lenin starting Pravda.
3. Marshall McLuhan: Ezra Klein visited Silicon Valley and was reminded of McLuhan’s (supposed) remark that “first we shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us.”
Klein argues that AI agents are empowering tools that give humans a massive boost in productivity. But the effect, he writes, is to constantly reinforce a certain version of ourselves. These agentic tools are undermining our agency, he fears. So AI ultimately gets to tell the AI story.
Agency is becoming simultaneously the political problem and the cure — the thing-in-itself. Writing in the New York Times, Sophie Haigney argues that all the worst people want to be high-agency. Out here, in Silicon Valley, we think that all the worst people want to be low-agency. Perhaps the only thing we all agree on is that nobody wants to be a bot. First we shape our AIs and thereafter they shape us.

Five Takeaways
• The AI Doc Failed. Two hours, no substance. All three leaders unconvinced. The only opinion you leave with is negative.
• OpenAI Bought a Media Company. TBPN for hundreds of millions. Lenin started Pravda for the same reason. Keith thinks it’s about Anthropic, not the doomsters.
• Klein Saw Something New. AI agents as personal assistants. The effect: constantly reinforcing a version of yourself. McLuhan was right.
• Agency Is the Defining Debate. The left says it’s arrogant. Keith says it’s the precondition for making history. The Meta verdict treated humans as infants.
• You Have to Ask It Something. AI can’t act outside the context you give it. Strong sense of self or we’re lost. The question is which comes first.

About the Guest
Keith Teare publishes That Was The Week. He is co-founder of SignalRank and a regular Saturday guest on Keen On America.

References
That Was The Week: https://thatwastheweek.substack.com/

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 Introduction: the AI doc, How I Became an Apocaloptimist
00:01:28 Keith’s verdict: a massive failure of a movie
00:03:20 Daniel Roher’s narrative: should I have a kid in an AI world?
00:05:30 Who gets to tell the AI story?
00:07:55 Brain surgeons vs. social policy: the trust problem
00:09:37 OpenAI buys TBPN: Lenin, Pravda, and the propaganda play
00:11:57 Executive churn at OpenAI: Lightcap, Simo, and the COO shuffle
00:15:22 Stability is the enemy: the biggest startup the world has ever seen
00:17:28 The markets: rear-view mirror meets speculation
00:19:48 SpaceX with xAI: rumoured at $2 trillion
00:22:32 Ezra Klein in San Francisco: I saw something new
00:24:19 McLuhan: we shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us
00:26:42 Why didn’t the AI doc actually use AI?
00:31:19 The agency debate: all the worst people want to be high-agency
00:38:09 AI is a calculating machine. You have to ask it something.