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
In Praise of Valiant American Women
How Barbie Dolls Up the Plasticity of our Surreal Times
Can the Men Be Saved?
The Gutenberg Parenthesis
Why Julian Barnes Will Never Write a Memoir or Autobiography
Why Conservatives Should Fear & Loathe AI
How To Be a Wise Teacher
The Netscape Moment When AI Gets a Brain
Imaging the Animal World as Nature's Great Maintenance Crew
Why the "very very excellent" OPPENHEIMER is a complicated film for our complex times
The Hidden History of American Democracy
Episode 1610: Our Oppenheimer Moment
Episode 1609: Why America Dominates the World