What for Verified Adults?
A while back I wrote about Sam Bankman-Fried and how I thought that whole sordid FTX fiasco was gross. And it was. Now we have Sam Altman, who after raising some $60 billion and consuming who knows how much power, water, and other natural resources to fuel this OpenAI fiasco, is revealing that the next breakthrough use case for artificial intelligence is “erotica for verified adults.” Wait, what? Why? And how come all of the best technology gets leveraged for advertising and pornography?
Around the same time I was shaking my head about all of this, I got a text from one of our partners who lives, works, and ranches in Russell, Kansas (cute town with a personified name!). He had just read what I wrote about Missouri (not misery) and said that the conclusion resonated because he thought Russell, Kansas, was their moat (and not one anyone else would breach).
I told him to enjoy it until the secret got out and Russell became the next hot tech hub.
He joked back that at least then they might get high-speed internet.
“I dunno,” I replied. “Seems like the tech industry might benefit from lower-speed internet so they’d have to take the time to be a little more thoughtful.”
At the risk of sounding cynical, I’m skeptical of visionaries. While the world has had its share of them to great benefit, it has also had its share of hucksters. What the two have in common is that they are both really good at raising capital. What they don’t is that it’s ultimately only the visionaries who make and live the hard choices you need to in order to create sustainable value. Because the next leap forward shouldn’t just be another way to disconnect.
– Tim
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