Chesky disappointment (Aspen)

I am utterly disappointed in “nice guy” @brian chesky’s unwavering support of @sam altman. Chesky’s description of his role during the short firing of Altman from OpenAI is nothing short of sycophantic: poor little Sam did nothing wrong (I think what saved him was the botched, ridiculous firing process that did make him look like a victim). These two, and many others like them, seem to live in a closed chamber of mutually reinforcing worldviews. This makes them impervious to any criticism, not just existential criticism but even more mundane pushback against, for example, their notion of fair use. As much as I consider OpenAI’s GPTs game changers, I don’t think we should give the alpha (mostly) males of the ecosystem the keys to our future. These guys are defining with reckless abandon what our (Western) world will look like. I would hypothesize that at some level they envy the Chinese government’s power to do anything it wants. They may refrain from expressing such dreams in public but even with all that restraint, you can’t escape that feeling that Altman is manipulating all of us, including Chesky. And he does so in such a cagey attitude that it should be a red flag to all. @kara swisher, please say something. You like Brian, I like Brian, but he is under influence.

Now, as a side note, I would like to point out that a number of “disruptive” business models start by basically breaking the law: not just Uber or airBnB, but eBay was in violation of a lot of laws and regulations on auctions in many countries when it launched more than two decades ago. It may be hard to remember in 2024 why eBay was running afoul of the law as it has become an unquestioned part of our lives. Uber and AirBnB are still fighting regulations but they have already become part of our lives as well. They have created and destroyed value, probably not in equal amounts, but they did so by targeting (sometimes monopolistic) inefficiencies and costly intermediaries.