Right now, AI is about as popular as the Boston Strangler, with protests against data centres and people with low emotional intelligence thinking they are clever putting “AI Slop” on every social media post.
Artificial-intelligence companies appear to be organising around one simple message as public anxiety rises about their world-changing tech: “We come in peace.”
OpenAI this week published a populist wish list of policy proposals that zero in on fears like job replacement and wealth concentration. It floated ideas such as a four-day workweek and an AI-invested public-wealth fund distributed to citizens.
Those proposals landed as rival Anthropic has been signing partnerships and building tools for sectors such as consulting and software, where share prices have been whacked by investor worries they will be replaced by AI. Anthropic’s efforts have helped push back up shares of tech outfits, including LegalZoom.com, even after LegalZoom.com stock slipped 1.48 per cent.
Anthropic and OpenAI are each pursuing ventures to help private equity, a big owner of companies in sectors ripe for disruption, with AI transformation. Those efforts could yield lucrative new business customers, which is the sort of coincidence that keeps showing up.
Call it confidence-building for the AI era, with the big labs racking up marketing mileage by touting nearly godlike transformational potential. The dangers they talked about felt like far-off science fiction, right up until the spreadsheets started sweating.
Now, as some businesses, investors, and individuals become more concerned about who gets swamped by that transformation, companies are pivoting towards managing the downside. The peace offering is less halo, more damage control.
OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane told The Wall Street Journal, “We do feel an urgency to this conversation,” and the urgency reads like a lab trying to get ahead of its own reputation.
OpenAI, under Sam Altman, has published policy proposals to address AI concerns, while Anthropic, led by Dario Amodei, has been building tools for consulting and software customers who do not fancy extinction.
Some business leaders have started warning AI disruption might come faster than society can adjust.
BlackRock chief executive officer Larry Fink wrote in his annual shareholder letter in March, “There’s a real risk artificial intelligence could widen wealth inequality.”
An OpenAI spokeswoman said the company wants to be proactive in conversations about AI and its rapid advancement.
“That means coming to the table with real solutions that are as transformative as the underlying technology,” she said.
A handful of recent polls suggest the hottest AI labs will have to reassure a wary public. Americans appear profoundly apprehensive about AI’s impact on society, with worries ranging from widespread job losses to broad cybersecurity threats.
A March poll from Quinnipiac University found that while AI use is increasing, 55 per cent of Americans believe more harm than good will come from the technology in their daily lives. That is up from 44 per cent in a poll last year, which is not the direction the hype merchants wanted.
An NBC News poll conducted in late February and early March found AI had a net favourability rating below that of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When you are losing the popularity contest to ICE, the “we come in peace” routine starts to look weak.
