The AI Race is a Myth: Why "Who's Winning" is the Wrong Question
Who’s winning and losing in AI plays like a wacky race in that every week there seems to be a new leader. But that’s actually the wrong way of thinking about today’s AI revolution. The right questions are about the three Cs: Capability, Capital and Civics. That’s the lesson of Keith Teare’s latest That Was The Week tech newsletter which focuses on what he calls “the Year in Intelligence”. Nobody is winning the AI race, Teare argues, because it isn’t a race. Instead, it’s an endless innovation cycle without either a start or finish line. The three key questions are whether AI capabilities are solving real social and economic problems, whether we can fund a $200 trillion industrial rebuild, and whether the rewards can be equitably shared. Those are the questions we should be asking. Not who is winning or losing.
Keen On America 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
A 107 Reasons to Dislike 107 Days: Kamala Harris Throws Everyone, Including Herself, Under the Bus
Gutted and Glutted: The Dire Economics of Podcasting in the AI Age
The Innovation Paradox Undermining the Digital Revolution: How Magical Technology Isn't Translating into Miraculous Economic Progress
Should Billionaires Be Banned? Why Extreme Wealth Might Be Incompatible with Democracy and the Survival of the Earth
Why Trump Might Be Right About Greenland: How a 57,000-Person Island Became Critical to 21st Century Geopolitics
The Unluckiest Generation: Confessions of a Millennial
Why Humans Have Such Big Brains (No, it's not Because of our Intelligence)
How Should Criminals be Punished? From Bentham's "Enlightened" Panopticon to the Universal Human Rights of Prisoners
Why Misogyny May Be America's Most Dangerous Ideology: The Role of the Manosphere in Political Assassinations and Mass Shootings
Rational Exuberance: Why $3 Trillion in AI Investment is Mathematical Certainty, not Madness
From Dodgers Top Draft Pick to Harvard Trained Middle Eastern Maven: Does the American Dream Still Exist?
We're Burning 500 Million Years of Earth's History in a Few Decades: So Stop Pretending Recycling Will Save the Planet
The Godfather of Security, Bruce Schneier, Rewires Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government and Citizenship