5 ms·

Why tech bosses keep sharing their manifestos about AI

22 points by tcp_handshaker 2mo ago

sscaryterry 2mo ago
[flagged]
- altairprime 2mo ago
  Correction: sociopathy, not psychopathy. The DSM diagnosis would find in favor of clinically disconnected and unconcerned with social benefits, but lacking in the hostility and violence that would underlie a psychopathy outcome. The critical differentiator is whether they enjoy seeing others harmed, or are disengaged from seeing others harmed.
  - sscaryterry 2mo ago
    Sure, my intent wasn't lost though.
- sscaryterry 2mo ago
  [flagged]
isatty 2mo ago
Isn’t the answer just: money?
- altairprime 2mo ago
  Considering another FP today about AI and ‘leadership’, perhaps it’s more on point to say that AI promotes Manager jobs, and Managers are writing manifestos about how Managers are the future of society. Yeah, money’s a factor, but if we lived in a world with replicators, a class that values itself for delegation would still be promoting AI for how it enables delegation without the tediousness of workers.
  - PunchyHamster 2mo ago
    I think they just realize their job (at least at the middle level) could near entirely be replaced by AI being fed tickets and company emails by an intern
    - altairprime 2mo ago
      Not so much! Management is effort that needs to be contributed, and I think a lot of the engineering community division we're seeing around AI stems from "Do you enjoy management?". Either you do, in which case AI is a godsend, or you do not, in which case AI is a tire fire — but in both cases, the outcome stems from AI needing to be managed in order to be effective. Middle managers exist to handle the day-to-day management of workers, so that leadership don't have to keep context-shifting between 'manage the organization' and 'manage the workers'. Today, AI is currently only able to replace workers. If, someday, AI can manage itself without direction and without costing exorbitant amounts per week to do so, then yes: middle managers will see the same work catastrophe served upon them by upper managers. This also highlights that 'AI manager' is perhaps the most sought-after role in software engineering right now, except that workers aren't being demanding or being offered a manager's salary. Big win versus labor for corporations there, especially if they can normalize middle managers taking a career-wide pay cut while everyone is excited about AI :)
- zamalek 2mo ago
  And attention or admiration. Maybe they feel like, for once in their lives, they can appear as intelligent as the people they employ with AI propping up their prose.
cryptographical 2mo ago
Ai is wonderful but it should never replace friends. I detest Mark Zuckerberg's claim that AI will replace friends, that's simply not happening. But AI is wonderful at tasks like upscaling or even meme generation.
- thih9 2mo ago
  In what I found he didn’t say “replace” but “add more”; it is still chilling and I detest it. Especially in the current incarnation of AI, where they are more or less controlled by corporations and government. > The average American has "three people that they would consider friends," he said. "And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's, like, 15." https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/05/09/mark-zuckerberg-says-ai-can-replace-human-relationshipsexpert-disagrees.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/05/09/mark-zuckerberg-says-ai-...
  - barbazoo 2mo ago
    > And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's, like, 15 Research seems to point at more like 3-5 https://www.socialconnectionguidelines.org/en/evidence-briefs/how-many-friends-do-you-need https://www.socialconnectionguidelines.org/en/evidence-brief...
- baal80spam 2mo ago
  That begs a question: would you rather have no friends, or a few AI friends?
  - solid_fuel 2mo ago
    > AI friends No such thing. It's a mechanical parrot that replies with the most likely response given an input. It's not a person. It's not a friend. It's not going to hold you while you cry. It's not going to invite you to its wedding. It has no independent life or thought or plans. It's not real.
    - 2mo ago
spread2009 2mo ago
[flagged]
tootie 2mo ago
Zuck's was weird. Andreesen's was just awful. Basically saying that nobody had any right to restrict him and other tech bros from raking in unlimited money doing whatever they wanted and that a bit of fascism couldn't hurt. He literally didn't give a single thing to be optimistic about. Just painted him as an absolute villain.
sublinear 2mo ago
Was the BBC always this bad? This story represents both sides so poorly. "AI" is the same shitty tech as ever before. These "manifestos" are a PR stunt, but only because "AI" has been used as a scapegoat for everything from layoffs to fraud and privacy violations. Who reads this crap and actually believes it? Is the brainrot really this bad? They set up all these lame thought traps to make people argue about the wrong things, and they actually fucking worked?
- alephnerd 2mo ago
  > Was the BBC always this bad No. The BBC severely degraded over the past decade after multiple budget cuts forced it to take the clickbait approach especially for non-British reporting because BBC's ad-free mandate is only for UK residents and reporting. Also, an news org is only as good as it's reporters, and those reporters with the right Rolodex are no longer associated with the BBC, CNN, CBS, and other traditional heavyweights. If you're in SF you'll often bump into the tech correspondents of most news organizations at parties, on dates, while bar-hopping Marina, or during hobbies, and you don't see the CNN, BBC, or Fox tech news correspondent invited to the right events nor cultivating the right sources. Oftentimes they tend to be much younger (late 20s to 30s) taking a cushy break after being stressed out working as a DC or Bruxelles or Whitehall correspondent or straight out of college who will eventually become a lower-to-mid rung Strategic Comms employee at a random company writing PRs and managing a small team of video-editors. > Who reads this crap and actually believes it? Is the brainrot really this bad? They set up all these lame thought traps to make people argue about the wrong things, and they actually fucking worked? You did and made an impression. That's how clickbait works. If you want more actionable reporting, you need to read reporting done either by News Agencies (eg. Reuters, AP, AFP) as they are written opinion-free such that other news broadcasters can purchase articles and edit them as needed or read news directly tied to decisonmaking (eg. Bloomberg due to the Bloomberg terminal, Politico and it's history as the goto broadsheet on the hill, Axios and financial and political decisionmakers, etc).
  - sscaryterry 2mo ago
    > BBC's ad-free mandate is only for UK residents and reporting. Didn't know this, thank you.
saejox 2mo ago
Public sentiment about AI is trending down. All about trying to turn that slope to a positive number.
- toomuchtodo 2mo ago
  Indeed, they are attempting to shape and control the narrative with proclamations. Luckily, they’ve exhausted any trust and social capital outside of their bubble. “The authoritarian tech bros have no clothes.”
VCFundedGenYer 2mo ago
It's the only thing keeping the bubble from immediately popping. Hopium trying to keep investors from running for the hills.

sscaryterry 2mo ago

[flagged]

altairprime 2mo ago
Correction: sociopathy, not psychopathy. The DSM diagnosis would find in favor of clinically disconnected and unconcerned with social benefits, but lacking in the hostility and violence that would underlie a psychopathy outcome. The critical differentiator is whether they enjoy seeing others harmed, or are disengaged from seeing others harmed.
- sscaryterry 2mo ago
  Sure, my intent wasn't lost though.
sscaryterry 2mo ago
[flagged]

isatty 2mo ago

Isn’t the answer just: money?

altairprime 2mo ago
Considering another FP today about AI and ‘leadership’, perhaps it’s more on point to say that AI promotes Manager jobs, and Managers are writing manifestos about how Managers are the future of society. Yeah, money’s a factor, but if we lived in a world with replicators, a class that values itself for delegation would still be promoting AI for how it enables delegation without the tediousness of workers.
- PunchyHamster 2mo ago
  I think they just realize their job (at least at the middle level) could near entirely be replaced by AI being fed tickets and company emails by an intern
  - altairprime 2mo ago
    Not so much! Management is effort that needs to be contributed, and I think a lot of the engineering community division we're seeing around AI stems from "Do you enjoy management?". Either you do, in which case AI is a godsend, or you do not, in which case AI is a tire fire — but in both cases, the outcome stems from AI needing to be managed in order to be effective. Middle managers exist to handle the day-to-day management of workers, so that leadership don't have to keep context-shifting between 'manage the organization' and 'manage the workers'. Today, AI is currently only able to replace workers. If, someday, AI can manage itself without direction and without costing exorbitant amounts per week to do so, then yes: middle managers will see the same work catastrophe served upon them by upper managers. This also highlights that 'AI manager' is perhaps the most sought-after role in software engineering right now, except that workers aren't being demanding or being offered a manager's salary. Big win versus labor for corporations there, especially if they can normalize middle managers taking a career-wide pay cut while everyone is excited about AI :)
zamalek 2mo ago
And attention or admiration. Maybe they feel like, for once in their lives, they can appear as intelligent as the people they employ with AI propping up their prose.

cryptographical 2mo ago

Ai is wonderful but it should never replace friends. I detest Mark Zuckerberg's claim that AI will replace friends, that's simply not happening. But AI is wonderful at tasks like upscaling or even meme generation.

thih9 2mo ago
In what I found he didn’t say “replace” but “add more”; it is still chilling and I detest it. Especially in the current incarnation of AI, where they are more or less controlled by corporations and government. > The average American has "three people that they would consider friends," he said. "And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's, like, 15." https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/05/09/mark-zuckerberg-says-ai-can-replace-human-relationshipsexpert-disagrees.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/05/09/mark-zuckerberg-says-ai-...
- barbazoo 2mo ago
  > And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's, like, 15 Research seems to point at more like 3-5 https://www.socialconnectionguidelines.org/en/evidence-briefs/how-many-friends-do-you-need https://www.socialconnectionguidelines.org/en/evidence-brief...
baal80spam 2mo ago
That begs a question: would you rather have no friends, or a few AI friends?
- solid_fuel 2mo ago
  > AI friends No such thing. It's a mechanical parrot that replies with the most likely response given an input. It's not a person. It's not a friend. It's not going to hold you while you cry. It's not going to invite you to its wedding. It has no independent life or thought or plans. It's not real.
  - 2mo ago

spread2009 2mo ago

[flagged]

tootie 2mo ago

Zuck's was weird. Andreesen's was just awful. Basically saying that nobody had any right to restrict him and other tech bros from raking in unlimited money doing whatever they wanted and that a bit of fascism couldn't hurt. He literally didn't give a single thing to be optimistic about. Just painted him as an absolute villain.

sublinear 2mo ago

Was the BBC always this bad? This story represents both sides so poorly. "AI" is the same shitty tech as ever before. These "manifestos" are a PR stunt, but only because "AI" has been used as a scapegoat for everything from layoffs to fraud and privacy violations. Who reads this crap and actually believes it? Is the brainrot really this bad? They set up all these lame thought traps to make people argue about the wrong things, and they actually fucking worked?

alephnerd 2mo ago
> Was the BBC always this bad No. The BBC severely degraded over the past decade after multiple budget cuts forced it to take the clickbait approach especially for non-British reporting because BBC's ad-free mandate is only for UK residents and reporting. Also, an news org is only as good as it's reporters, and those reporters with the right Rolodex are no longer associated with the BBC, CNN, CBS, and other traditional heavyweights. If you're in SF you'll often bump into the tech correspondents of most news organizations at parties, on dates, while bar-hopping Marina, or during hobbies, and you don't see the CNN, BBC, or Fox tech news correspondent invited to the right events nor cultivating the right sources. Oftentimes they tend to be much younger (late 20s to 30s) taking a cushy break after being stressed out working as a DC or Bruxelles or Whitehall correspondent or straight out of college who will eventually become a lower-to-mid rung Strategic Comms employee at a random company writing PRs and managing a small team of video-editors. > Who reads this crap and actually believes it? Is the brainrot really this bad? They set up all these lame thought traps to make people argue about the wrong things, and they actually fucking worked? You did and made an impression. That's how clickbait works. If you want more actionable reporting, you need to read reporting done either by News Agencies (eg. Reuters, AP, AFP) as they are written opinion-free such that other news broadcasters can purchase articles and edit them as needed or read news directly tied to decisonmaking (eg. Bloomberg due to the Bloomberg terminal, Politico and it's history as the goto broadsheet on the hill, Axios and financial and political decisionmakers, etc).
- sscaryterry 2mo ago
  > BBC's ad-free mandate is only for UK residents and reporting. Didn't know this, thank you.

saejox 2mo ago

Public sentiment about AI is trending down. All about trying to turn that slope to a positive number.

toomuchtodo 2mo ago
Indeed, they are attempting to shape and control the narrative with proclamations. Luckily, they’ve exhausted any trust and social capital outside of their bubble. “The authoritarian tech bros have no clothes.”

VCFundedGenYer 2mo ago

It's the only thing keeping the bubble from immediately popping. Hopium trying to keep investors from running for the hills.