“Claude is anti-engagement. OpenAI, I'm not sure what they're going to do, but they're trying to do advertising without engagement. Meta is going to be pro-engagement. Meta is going to be an engaging AI, which is going to pull you in. So you're going to have these multiple strategies working out there. And that is why I'm also happy that there's multiple parties, because we could also be in the Meta-only scenario. And that would not be a good path to have.”
Doom Debates! · AI Research & Frontier Labs · November 2026
Context
Prakash had argued that recommendation systems like social media are already a form of misaligned AI. Here he compares how the big labs approach engagement, and says competition between them is itself a safeguard.
Transcript
…So I feel like those things, all of the bad things about going out with a whimper have already happened. And we only have like the good things to look forward to for AI right now. Like the AI can actually reverse some of these things that we are experiencing right now. I think it can reverse.
Because you've eliminated go out with a bang as a potential scenario, correct? Yeah,
because I've eliminated going out with a bang as a potential scenario. So I believe we're in the going out with a whimper scenario. You can kind of call that AI if you want to look at social media algorithms and like, you know, other recommendation systems like Tinder not giving you your date and Tinder just focusing on entertaining you and engaging you without focusing on getting you married. That's a form of misalignment, right? Like if you had a chatbot doing that, we would say that's a misaligned chatbot. But because you have a recommendation system which is not talking to you, we don't recognize it as an AI, right? And actually it is, right? So I think we are actually on the bad path right now. And the AI will actually help us reverse a bunch of these things. As you know, Claude is anti-engagement. Open AI, I'm not sure what they're going to do, but they're trying to do advertising without engagement. Meta is going to be pro-engagement, right? Meta is going to be an engaging AI, which is going to pull you in. So you're going to have these multiple strategies working out there. And that is why I'm also happy that there's multiple parties, because we could also be in the meta-only scenario. And that would not be a good path to have. So…
Well, like I mentioned before, I think our mindsets that don't have to do with AI extinction have a lot in common. We both lean libertarian. I think we're both techno-optimists. We both see the potential, like how great it would be to have these Einsteins if they weren't out to kill us, right? Like…
possible? So again, one of the things that has to happen is humanity has to accept AI. There's two sides to this, right? It's not just about building it, it's about the acceptance and the market acceptance. And then acceptance, you can, a proxy for acceptance is willing to pay for it and willing to…
wait, wait. Tell me if this is right. So it's like you know that AI awesomeness is coming and we should go as fast as possible, but you're just trying to be more gentle to the rest of humanity who doesn't get it yet. And so you're trying to like put on like a socially acceptable face on this, right?
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