The artificial intelligence gold rush is creating a new ideological battlefront in Silicon Valley. Tech founders and engineers are being branded \u201cmissionaries\u201d or \u201cmercenaries\u201d, depending on whether they claim to be developing AI to advance the interests of America and humanity; or whether they are using AI to serve the next upgrade of the consumer internet with products like video-sharing apps and computer-generated influencers. <\/p>\n
Deedy Das, a partner at Menlo Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, told me Silicon Valley has turned increasingly mercenary in the AI boom as \u201cvery passionate nerds\u201d lose ground to people who primarily want to \u201cmake a lot of money\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the new Wall Street,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to make a lot of money. And I think over the course of time, what that does to missionaries and mercenaries, is you organically have way more mercenaries. I mean, even just being a founder today, for most young people, is more a status symbol than it is a mission \u2026 it\u2019s a resum\u00e9 item. It\u2019s the new Harvard Business School.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of another Silicon Valley venture capital firm told me the super-salaries of AI engineers spearheaded by Meta, where Mark Zuckerberg has been offering pay packages valued at as much as $200 million, had created a \u201cmercenary hysteria\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to be a missionary. It\u2019s another thing to be a missionary and feel like you could be making $100 million if you weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meta\u2019s superintelligence team has been accused by tech leaders of accepting big pay packages to produce \u201cAI slop\u201d. Last month, when Alexandr Wang, Meta\u2019s chief AI officer, unveiled Vibes, an app feature that allows users to create and scroll through a feed of AI-generated videos, Nikita Bier, head of product at X, commented: \u201cGive me the slop stream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jake Cooper, founder of Railway, a San Francisco-based software infrastructure platform, wrote that Vibes is \u201cnot the future I would like to live in\u201d. He added: \u201cAI can and should be used for good. A partner in craft, allowing us to move faster to go farther. It can also be used for evil. To hook you an infinite IV of cheap crap. Let\u2019s choose the former please.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Meta revenues rocket as it bets big on being an AI superpower<\/a><\/p>\n While investors worry that the elevated expenses of tech companies with their heady valuations will end in a crash<\/a>, savvy tech leaders are concerned about the broader public perception of AI technology amid a growing backlash to energy-guzzling data centres and the potential for AI to cause severe disruption to the jobs market. <\/p>\n The gloves are coming off. Commenting on Meta\u2019s Vibes feature, Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer of Palantir Technologies, the software and data analytics company that works with the US military, wrote on X: \u201cFrivolous applications of AI do nothing to address the greatest challenges of our time and adds more weight to the growing anti-AI movement which sees America\u2019s AI companies as disinterested in their fate, exploitative, and craven.\u201d<\/p>\n President Trump\u2019s administration has so far favoured low regulation of AI firms. The White House AI plan, published in July, sets out how the president is relying on AI to usher in a \u201cnew golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n The pro-innovation advocates for low regulation presently have the upper hand. However, that could quickly change, along with the US administration\u2019s approach towards AI regulation, if rapid technological advances lead to public unrest.<\/p>\n