Mark Little: ‘Technology doesn’t have a moral compass – WE need to rein it in and to push for that!’
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Mark Little, entrepreneur and journalist. Welcome.
Thank you, Brendan. Good to be back.
So come here.
What insights does Mark Little provide on the AI hype cycle?
Can you believe it's three years since you and I began having conversations about artificial intelligence, right? Like, I think I remember quaintly the first thing you were saying to people, look, just give it a go, try it out. And I thought after that, I will try it out. And sure now it's sitting there next to me all day while I work on everything. Maybe kind of as a more sophisticated Google, I'm using it in a way, but more and more use it. But it has just remarkably become such a part of our lives now. So the other thing is that a lot of the themes you've been touching on in these conversations over the last three years really feel like they're coming to a head now, don't they?
Yeah, and it's funny because when we talked May of 2023, Charge EP had been about six months around, 100 million people were using it back then. It's now a billion. So you take that statistic, first of all, and like you say, I think a lot of people who back then didn't know what it was are now using it. I think the majority of people in their workplace are using AI in some form. The vast majority of kids using it in education. It's become, as you say, not a search engine, but an answer engine for many people. Starting to see some of the potential we talked about in medicine.
Kids using it as well for their text messages to each other. You know, when they're having a row and they're sending each other these long, elaborately written text messages full of jargon and they're going, hang on a minute.
And they're also describing it as the chat. They're dropping into the chat.
The chat has become the thing.
I think we talked about potential for good as well. We talked about potential for medical research. That's all kind of coming through in a way. But I suppose the biggest thing for me has been this concentration of power in the hands of a tiny number. of massive U.S.
How has the adoption of AI changed in the workplace?
companies, which has been the really unexpected thing for me, the extent that's happened, because we talked about the iPhone being a similar invention before that would change the way we thought about ourselves. But we are very positive about previous ways of technology, the iPhone, the personal computer, even social media. For the very first time, we are deeply scared. The opinion polls are saying we're fearful of this new technology. That's new. And I think it's because we see these gigantic companies who've chosen a very narrow path, which is making chatbots and trying to make businesses more efficient. And we suddenly realize there's a vested interest now in the people creating the AI to automate everything.
And it's a very narrow vision of AI that's not big enough, I don't think, to give us a sense of faith. And so a fear is happening. And there's one phrase I think we talked about last time. I said to you that we are a 19th century democracy facing a 21st century technology. And I think the reaction of the state, the government, the public to this challenge just has not kept up with the pace of the change. So, you know, better in some ways, I thought, but the adoption, obviously more popular now, but also more fearful, I think, than we talked about back then.
OK, so let's unpick some of that. It's interesting when you say about a small group of companies, they tend to be companies as well who are dominated by one or two people, most of them. So actually, is this industrial revolution in the hands of like less than a dozen people, maybe?
Yeah, I mean, there are three companies, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, who have about 90% of all the AI for business and about 80% of all the AI for consumers. And they all hold it. They're led by, you know, essentially individuals who don't get on with each other, by the way. There's a great photograph in the Indian AI Summit where Sam Altman from OpenAI won't shake the hand of Dario Amadai. So there's kind of these also petty rivalries there as well. But between them all, they're also investing in each other.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:05
2
What insights does Mark Little provide on the AI hype cycle?
0:05–1:42
3
How has the adoption of AI changed in the workplace?
1:42–6:51
4
What concerns arise from the concentration of power in tech companies?
6:51–8:42
5
How can regulation keep pace with fast-evolving AI technology?
8:42–29:15