Episode 2113: Does Silicon Valley have an AI Bubble Problem? Duh....
Does Silicon Valley have an AI bubble problem? That Was the Week’s Keith Teare, usually the most bullish of tech bulls, acknowledges that Silicon Valley has an overvaluation issue with AI startups. But I wonder if the problem with AI goes deeper than the frothiness of its startup valuations. What, if anything, is AI search good for? asks a Vox piece that Keith links to this week. That could be rephrased. What, if anything, is AI good for? might be a better question amidst the ridiculous valuations and childish promises of Silicon Valley’s AI priesthood. And the current answer, I suspect, is: not very much.
Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Two Freedoms and Two Americas: Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King's Incompatible Versions of Liberty
The Uberification of Academia: Why Adjunct Professors are Living in their Cars
How to Lose Loudly: What the Left can Learn from the NRA
More Than Chinatown: Bruce Lee and the Invention of Asian American Identity
The AI Pioneer Who Chose Purpose Over Profit: Jim Fruchterman on Why Big Tech Can't Be Trusted with Our Future
World Enemy Number One: Nazi Germany's Obsession with 'Judeo-Bolshevism'
The True Cost of Roadkill: Cars Have Caused 60 to 80 Million Deaths in the Last 100 Years
Is that $320,000 College Degree Really Worth It? The President of Brandeis on why Colleges Must Adapt or Become Irrelevant
The Dark Passions Driving American Politics: Why Liberals Must Acknowledge Anger, Fear, and the Lust for Domination
The AI Assistant That Knows Your Life Before You Do: The End of the Beginning or the Beginning of the End?
TRUMP IS NOT POPULAR: How a Sub 40% Approval Offers Hope for the Dems
The Idiocracy Trap: Why Smart Machines are making Humans Dumb & Dumber
Halfway to Hungary: Jonathan Rauch on the Authoritarian Playbook that Trump Borrowed from a Small, Landlocked Central European State