Bill Gates, other tech leaders reflect on AI fears
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Covering the energy demands of AI while increasingly using AI feels like a strange form of immersion therapy.
Why it matters: We're all humans first, and only then journalists, founders, philanthropists or experts. And AI is fast reshaping how we work, think and find meaning.
Catch up quick: This is a follow-up to my Finish Line article on this topic. It's taken on additional currency with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's warning this week of the imminent "real danger" that superhuman intelligence will cause civilization-level damage absent smart, speedy intervention.
Driving the news: I've begun asking interviewees to drop their talking points and answer as humans: How are you using AI, and what worries you?
"I'm certainly most scared about the loss of meaning in human life," said Varun Sivaram, founder of startup Emerald AI. He is referring to the loss of reason to do economically useful work, which gives people initiative in life.
- Some people may see AI as helping liberate them from their jobs, Sivaram said, instead spending their time just seeing art and music.
- "But a lot of people don't want only that right, right? And I really worry about that a lot for the human soul," Sivaram said.
Reality check: Others emphasize agency over inevitability.
- "I think what's missing in this conversation is the idea we have agency. We get to make choices," said Mike Schroepfer, former CTO of Meta, now a founder of cleantech venture capital firm Gigascale Capital.
- For example, he said, he can choose not to use GPS to preserve his sense of direction.
- "I have faith in people to make good decisions about it and figure it out as we go along," he said.
The intrigue: Getting people to truly open up has been hard. Some retreat to safe language; others invoke children or grandchildren as a proxy for deeper unease.
Flashback: In a live interview last fall at Caltech, philanthropist Bill Gates responded with humor that carried an uncomfortable truth.
- "Someday the AI is going to say to me, 'Hey, stop messing around trying to eradicate malaria. I'm so much smarter than you. You just go play pickleball, and I'll get back to you.' And I'm going to be a little disappointed, like 'Oh geez, I'm not that good at pickleball, '" Gates told me.
The bottom line: None of us knows where this lands yet.
- "Hopefully, future lectures will appear to answer that question," Gates said after giving a lecture.
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