Gongol.com Archives: August 2025
August 13, 2025
Don't just look for the gas -- check for the brakes
Two grown adults are engaged in the online version of a slap fight, as Elon Musk and Sam Altman exchange barbs and screenshots of their AI chatbots accusing one another of disreputability. Beyond their self-evident personal animosity, it reflects the high intensity of the ongoing "gold rush" phase of artificial intelligence development. Lots of people are heavily invested in making truly extraordinary predictions and promises at a time when capital expenditures in the sector are large enough to meaningfully affect GDP growth rates. ■ Big business has always attracted big personalities, of course. We aren't soon to forget the names of JP Morgan or Henry Ford. But there's a note of caution that applied then, and it applies now, when it comes to promoters -- both the people at the center of the action and their many cheerleaders and partisans. ■ Zealotry is often the red flag waved by the uninformed. Increasing knowledge of any subject area -- be it technology, religion, economics, medicine, or any other -- should tend to increase one's humility about the boundaries of what is possible, prudent, or wise to do. ■ That humility doesn't necessarily mean that one's enthusiasm should diminish, only that one should have an increasing awareness of limitations and potential hazards in at least roughly equal measure with awareness of the possibilities. A beginning driver may see a car and think only of its potential for speed. The experienced driver can appreciate the speed, but should be able to look at the same car and wonder equally about its brakes. ■ The really prominent individuals in this field probably know more about the limitations than they're willing to let on -- though it's also possible they have become so entranced by the vista they've painted that they no longer see the limitations as they should. So it may go with the hype cycle.
