The only way to slow down AI, as we pointed out last week, is to cancel the IPOs. The head of OpenAI, Sam Altman, even said that maybe he’ll hold off until next year.
But the money rush isn’t slowing down. As the NY Times reports, Anthropic is planning an IPO for November, which will make its top managers and the venture capitalists investors, very, very rich, and will mint hundreds of new millionaires.
The rest of us? We can suffer with another boom housing market, and thousands more evictions, risk mass unemployment, and possibly risk our lives.
Meanwhile: China and Iran are using AI to create false influencer campaigns on Instagram and Tik Tok, using these robot personalities to influence US politics. From the Times:
Once hundreds of those A.I. agents were let loose, they autonomously opened networks of fake accounts on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok, the officials and security researchers said. The agents then rapidly seeded the fake accounts with false posts about politics and current events to sway opinions and inflame issues. It was one of the first times that A.I. agents backed by Chinese models were used to handle every stage of influence campaigns, from the creation of the fake accounts to coordinating their messaging online, said the U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on sensitive issues. In most of the cases, the safeguards that would normally stop an A.I. model from creating a fake account or manipulating discussions online were turned off by those operating the systems, they added.
If China and India can do this, you think maybe the Republican National Committee and Trump’s $400 million campaign committee could do the same thing? A sizable majority of people under 30 in the US get most of their information about the world around them from Insta and Tik Tok.
This is terrifying.
On the other hand, across the country, and across political lines, we are seeing a revolt against AI, manifested right now mostly through opposition to data centers. There’s even a proposal to build one on the SF waterfront, which I suspect will not be popular in Dogpatch.
I just got another mailer today from the Scott Wiener IE, saying that Connie Chan says “no” to everything. Saying “no” to a data center in San Francisco seems like a positive thing.
Chan is against the data center. I texted Wiener and asked if he would say no to it, but he hasn’t responded.
And on that note: Gil Duran, a local journalist, has a book out that has become a New York Times bestseller. It’s called The Nerd Reich, and it explains the bizarre (and frightening) far-right ideology of some of the most powerful technorati.
His message, and the overall anti-tech backlash, could be a powerful organizing tool for progressives.
The Telegraph Hill Dwellers are sponsoring an event with Duran, in conversation with Emily Mills, Tuesday/26 at Club Fugazi, 678 Green St. You can register here.
San Francisco is continuing to move toward creating a public power system, more than 100 years after the Raker Act mandated it. The head of the Public Utilities Commission, Dennis Herrera, supports the project, which could bring in hundreds of millions for the city and end the nightmare of PG&E’s intransigence and expensive, dirty power. Former Mayor London Breed supported it. We have yet to hear from Mayor Daniel Lurie.
But we will get a good sense of where Lurie and his allies on the Board of Supes are this week.
As part of the process to condemn and buy out PG&E’s distribution system, the city had to do an environmental impact report. It’s highly technical stuff that doesn’t get into the larger issues; it addresses where new power lines might go, and how to connect the city to the grid.
In other words: Just a required legal step toward the final project.
The Planning Commission has approved it. To nobody’s surprise, PG&E has appealed that approval.
You can read the appeal here, and the city’s response here. It’s all highly technical stuff.
The supes hardly ever overturn Planning Commission EIR certifications, and it would be a huge stretch to do it this time. It appears PG&E is just doing this as a performative exercise, to use for a future lawsuit: According to Ethics Commission filings, the company’s lobbyists have not contacted anyone at City Hall in the past two months.
But if Lurie is going to oppose public power, and he’s got some supes on his side, we will see it Tuesday. The technical details don’t matter: This is a critical test of whether this mayor, and his allies, are going to side with PG&E or with the overwhelming case for public power.
The hearing starts at 3pm.
