Here again there is a gap between public statements and
on-the-ground facts. Microsoft’s Community-First Initiative sounds great but does
not have any form of independent accountability mechanism built in. OpenAI’s
new white paper signals a move toward progressive tech policy, but its
president, Greg Brockman, has funneled millions into a SuperPAC opposing
state-level AI regulation efforts. OpenAI is also currently
supporting a state legislature bill in Illinois (Senate Bill 3444) that would shield it from
large-scale harms caused by the AI models (Anthropic, for its part, opposes the
bill).
These examples underscore the pattern that Ronan Farrow
noted in his recent New
Yorker exposé about Sam Altman—that he would regularly publicly support
one position and then quickly reverse course when it seemed like doing so would
benefit his company.
If Altman, Amodei, and their Big Tech peers want to rebuild
public trust and create a genuine technology that benefits the public, then
the path forward isn’t another white paper or postulating about the existential
risks of their technology. It’s sustained, verifiable action: genuine
transparency about what their products can do, a willingness to accept
meaningful regulation and responsibility even at financial cost, and real
democratic input from communities on the growth of data centers. Otherwise, this
burgeoning AI populism movement will continue to scale up—as will the
potential for violence that accompanies it.
