Things People Say on Podcasts About Tech Strategy & Big Tech

“It doesn't matter why I was wrong. That doesn't matter. What matters is that I was wrong.”

“I think it's a lot of cowardice, I'll be honest. … So many other people around it who had the concerns and voiced them urgently just folded like napkins and changed their tune the moment they saw the wind was blowing the other way and they wanted in on the profit train.”

“All I can do is offer an opinion about AI as it pertains to my field. And it's that I'm optimistic, actually, because I think the audience is going to reject it. I think that if you play Call of Duty, you don't have an emotional connection to the people you're shooting in Call of Duty. That's going to be your experience watching AI Schindler's List.”

“The issue is going from AIs that are safe because if they were trying to take over the world, they would fail to AIs that have to be safe because if they tried to take over the world, they would succeed.”

“Everyone, all of these guys think it would be a catastrophe if anyone else won the race first. And I'm sort of like, I just believe in one fewer AI CEO than they do.”

“I once described him as somebody who can jump off the edge of a cliff and invent a parachute on the way down. I think he thrives on chaos.”

“Sort of definitionally, everyone's house is an edge case. So you cannot sell in a box something that works for everyone… I don't think any of this is ready for primetime because there's just no way to sell it to anyone else. Like you just end up being the systems administrator for your house.”

“Valuing life is a hallmark of a great society. But because we've combined that with regulatory capture by defense firms, the U.S. has built the most expensive glass jaw in history.”

“The way this industry talks about the thing that they're making is as though they have completely lost control of their own ambition.”

“I just think we have to stop putting this in entirely human or entirely robot terms. Like, it's not conscious like a human. It's not dead like a rock, right? And it's not a life form. It's just some different thing.”

“A lot of the best, most boring phones don't win any awards because they're already really good and they take no risks and they change nothing. They're not most improved. They're not the bust. They're not the phone of the year. They're not the design award. They're just boring.”

“Nobody has a better idea for AI than it can help you book trips. And everybody has ideas about how it might kill us all. And like, boy, is that a bad trade. If you can give me the trade that is good enough that I will accept a 10% chance that we're all going to die, that's actually a really fun conversation to have.”