OpenAI Wants Control of your Devices

And why Andrej Karpathy left OpenAI 😬

Hey Everyone,

The idea of AI agents do things for us is not new. I covered on this Newsletter the Rabbit r1, that I thought was a pretty innovative take on AI helping you do stuff with your apps with an affordable device with a nice form-factor. You actually get what you paid for. They sold out.

Now it appears, OpenAI wants to do this as well, recently upgrading ‘memory’ of past conversations it has had with you and importantly has been working on building similar AI agent tech to, wait for it, ‘use apps for you.’ Take over your device? Automatically? Really.

Sam Altman seems always to want to steal the PR headlines while OpenAI’s product timeline aggressively appears to want more of a person’s data without clear benefits. Google made similar promises years ago, that never manifested. Does anyone remember Google Duplex? Chatbot and AI agent trends have a way of going bust.

OpenAI wants to build a next-level personal assistant, all the while OpenAI’s CEO warning of “societal misalignment” as a risk. OpenAI always says one thing, and does another. OpenAI at least is a product focused AI startup, innovating just enough to sort of hold your attention, even as you being to use ChatGPT less and less.

• Perhaps harvesting more and more data from their users is not really aligned with the future of personal assistants. Microsoft’s pricey Copilots and OpenAI’s tactics are going to lead to buyer’s remorse I predict. And here is the simple reason.

• A majority of the American public is skeptical about artificial intelligence, and the companies advertising (like at the Super bowl or Sam Altman’s constant public appearances) are attempting to humanize the technology. According to a recent Pew Research Study, 52 percent of Americans are “more concerned than excited about the growth of AI.”

• In 2024, wages have not even adapted to the rise in inflation. The majority of people and consumers don’t find Generative AI very useful in their daily lives or even at their job.

• Only 10 percent of the public are more excited than concerned about AI’s possibilities. Hint, they are’t ChatGPT daily active users and don’t want a company associated with Microsoft to leverage their personal data - it’s not, aligned to what these customers (most people), actually want.

• Those AI bros, they are a minority. Which makes you realize just what an echo-bubble the folks on X or LinkedIn are who concern themselves with AI.

The prognosis is not good for the latest wave of AI agents. Society just isn’t ready.

There will be a collective lack of consent to what OpenAI is trying to do. Let’s take a look at what they say they are trying to accomplish potentially with their AI agents even with the little information that has been strategically leaked.

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