Kill Bill or Kill Keith? Why Using AI to Author Books Might Not Be in the Interest of Man

**Andrew Keen** (0:00)
Hello, my name is Andrew Keen. Welcome to Keen On America, the daily interview show about the United States.
Hello, everybody. It's Sunday, July the 26th, 2026 It's time for our weekly tech roundup with my old friend. That was the week publisher, Keith Teare. Last Saturday, we did a show in which Keith asked, Who Owns Intelligence? And talked about what he called the smart wealth of nations. In the meantime, Keith has used AI to author a new book, appropriately called Who Owns Intelligence? No wonder a lot of people are fearful about AI. Keith, what have you learned from using AI to write a book? Who Owns Intelligence? Appropriate title perhaps for an AI book.

**Keith Teare** (1:16)
You know, it was inspired by our conversation last week, the idea of doing it, which was it's a fairly complicated discussion.
The core idea is something called a Human Wealth Fund, which is basically a fund created by AI companies for everybody, initiated by putting their stock into it, global on day one and not governmental.
And we talked a lot about other examples of similar funds, for example, Norway, Alaska. They're not that similar, but they have something in common with that idea. And I suddenly thought you can't really convey an idea like this without long form because firstly, most people will instinctively think it's utopian and disagree with it. So you need to show evidence that humans have already done things like this. And then secondly, will it work economically? So you need to make a case for it, an economic and mathematical case. And then thirdly, they wouldn't believe that the companies would do it. So I thought the best form is a book. And I started by using AI to craft the chapters in my own logical narrative style. And then write them one by one. And after about a week, I ended up with something that approximates what I think.

**Andrew Keen** (2:43)
No wonder, Keith, AI has enemies. I'm an author. Many other authors are going to be really scared. Because coming up with a book, even if it's an AI book in a week, full of ideas, structured, coherent is terrifying for many authors. It's an appropriate perhaps introduction to our conversation this week for your editorial. You have chosen to talk about AI and its enemies. Who needs a kill switch? Of course, AI and Its Enemies brings to mind another famous book by Karl Popper in 1945, The Open Society and Its Enemies.
So Keith, should your effort to write this book from our conversation last week, should that explain why AI has so many enemies?

**Keith Teare** (3:38)
I don't think so because AI didn't do much more than take my ideas and turn them into something that approximates my ideas. So what really happened is I wrote a book in a week using AI as a tool, AI would never have been able to start, never mind finish a book without me. So I think authors should see it as, as long as they've done the work and they understand the content of a book that's in their head, they should see it as a tool to accelerate the production of what's in their head.
So it's a good thing. It shouldn't lead to enemies. But I do think there will be a superficial narrative by people. For example, Substack this week introduced an AI detection tool, which I've tested is, is completely incapable of accurately detecting AI. But the spirit behind it was to stop AI unknowingly entering into the lexicon that Substack publishes. So yeah, they're definitely.

**Andrew Keen** (4:49)
So we're just, and we both publish on Substack, it's interesting. Would Substack then sniff out your AI, or at least maybe somewhat authored book, Who Owns Intelligence, would you be able to publish this on Substack?

**Keith Teare** (5:06)
Well, they don't stop you publishing it. They give readers the tool to ask the question. Oh, I see.

**Andrew Keen** (5:12)
So most readers aren't going to waste their time.

**Keith Teare** (5:15)
Most won't, but I tested it on this week's editorial, which it said was 100% AI, and actually was 100% me.

**Andrew Keen** (5:27)
Maybe you're merging with a machine, Keith.

**Keith Teare** (5:30)
No, I think it's because I use AI to initially craft the structure of an editorial, and you start with its view of what it is I want to say, and then you go through it line by line and rewrite it. So you end up with something that AI has barely touched, other than structure, I guess.
But the tool says it's 100% AI, which-

**Andrew Keen** (5:53)
Oh, you got to be careful. They're going to get thrown off Substack. We won't be able to do this show anymore. You say in your editorial that AI, when it comes to its enemies, and I'm quoting you here, the enemies of AI are mostly good people. That reminds me of some of my best friends are Jews.