[Column] Michiel Frackers: Is the end of an independent OpenAI near?

This week, several long-standing trends in the technology sector came to the surface more emphatically. First, the growing influence of large technology companies on politics and government, and then the question of whether AI models are economically viable, with even 'life-threatening' market conditions for AI startups such as OpenAI. In the crypto market, it was complete chaos.

Big Tech and Political Influence

The leaders of technology companies are increasingly trying to gain influence on social and political processes. It is no longer just Elon Musk, who last month, as a South African-born, Canadian-passported, naturalized American, tried to emerge as an expert on German society and openly called for support for the AfD, now Germany's second largest party with 21 percent.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is suddenly also a political activist. The not-so-left Wall Street Journal  is merciless to Bezos , subtly pointing out that Amazon recently coincidentally paid $40 million for an authorized documentary about Melania Trump, three times more than any other offer . The WSJ continues:

“There were the flattering tweets Bezos sent celebrating Trump’s victory, and his prominent presence alongside other tech leaders at the inauguration—Zuckerberg, Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai, among others. Their seats onstage, directly behind Trump and in front of the Cabinet, could be read two ways: as a historic gathering of new economic and technological powerhouses declaring their support for the incoming administration, or as a hostage video of billionaires held captive by a menacing strongman.

This week, another shock came when Bezos announced that the opinion pages of the Washington Post (which Bezos bought in 2013, MF) would henceforth be devoted to defending the principles of “personal liberty and free markets.” The shift to the right led to the resignation of David Shipley, the section’s editor in chief. Critics decried the move as an attempt to stifle liberal opposition and criticism of Trump, while others noted that such views are widely represented in other publications.

Bezos is now working on his PR by launching singer Katy Perry into space, with Oprah's bestie and his own fiancée , a more original way to test your relationship than Temptation Island. 

New macho tech bro: Alex Karp

Now, enter the formerly media-shy Palantir CEO Alex Karp, who in a new book openly advocates a system in which democratically elected leaders are replaced by an AI-driven bureaucracy. His argument is that AI can make decisions more efficiently than human administrators. It has also rarely been accused of left-wing leanings.  Bloomberg was harsh on Karp's book:  "A major complaint of the authors of The Technological Republic is that people today are afraid to speak their minds. Too many of us, they argue, give half-hearted, evasive answers when asked questions. We are uncomfortable making moral and aesthetic judgments, they say.

I agree, and I'm going to break the taboos. The Technological Republic is a terrible book: poorly written, boring, and—if the ideas can be picked up through the jargon, clichés, and repetitions—full of bad ideas ranging from questionable to objectionable and disturbing. This book is a disaster in both form and content. It paints a dark and depressing picture of the future."

No recommendation that will make it onto the back cover of the book, which should be seen primarily as a brochure for Palantir.

Big Tech Cries Out for Government Intervention

The founders of Big Tech companies Meta, Amazon and Tesla position themselves as indispensable for economic and social progress and claim that their success is the result of technological and market-oriented superiority. At the same time, Meta is largely responsible for sharing disinformation and sowing social division with click-hungry algorithms, Amazon is the pinnacle of consumerism with a history of  dismal employment conditions and Tesla enjoyed no less than 38 billion dollars in government subsidies. According to the Washington Post in an article  that dared to express some criticism of Tesla's supposed success based on free market forces.

With the impending introduction of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), technology is playing an increasingly important role in society. While politicians at the end of the last century often sneered at what was often described as nothing more than automation, it is only now that it is understood that the ongoing digitalization of the world is transitioning into AGI systems that, without democratic control, pose the risk that a small number of leaders of technology companies will amass disproportionate power.

The interests of Big Tech do not run parallel with societal values ​​such as privacy, democracy and participation. The tech bros think first of the quarterly figures.