The Man Who Calls BS On AI: AI Is The World’s Greatest SCAM, And They All Know It! | Ed Zitron

**Ed Zitron** (0:00)
I think generative AI is at its heart, Con. And seeing these ultra-rich, ultra-powerful people live through their f**king teeth turns my stomach.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:08)
The word con is a strong word.

**Ed Zitron** (0:09)
Well, what do you call something where from the very beginning, they've sold it in the terms of magic, but it's just a half-arsery machine. They are misleading the entire world.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:18)
You are the first person that I've spoken to that has that opinion.

**Ed Zitron** (0:20)
Well, the fact that this is happening is insane, and the fact it's not a scandal is insane. And I've been in the tech industry for 16 years now, and I love technology, and I'm enthusiastic about it. But I don't like being misled. And this is the largest non-consensual push of technology in history.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:36)
So we're gonna play a game, Ed. I have the things that you consider to be myths about the AI industry.

**Ed Zitron** (0:42)
Let's play it. The AI industry is creating enormous economic growth. No, it's not. All of these companies run at a horrifying loss. OpenAI lost $20.9 billion last year. None of these people could just say, yeah, we're on the path to making this profitable, because they can't.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:55)
Next one.

**Ed Zitron** (0:56)
AI will replace all human jobs. That just isn't happening. There's no economic data to support it. Next, the United States need to spend trillions to beat China in the AI race. What's the race to do for us to constantly piss our pants worrying about China? But people keep saying, what if these models fall into the wrong hands? They're already in the wrong hands. Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Dario Amadei.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:16)
Mark Zuckerberg says, we'll continue to invest aggressively in infrastructure to meet the demand.

**Ed Zitron** (1:20)
God met us a monstrosity. Makes me think of Shrek with Lord Farquaad. Some of you may die, but that's a risk I'm willing to accept. If only these people gave a fuck about poverty or actual problems in the world versus, are we buying enough GPUs?

**Steven Bartlett** (1:33)
If this continues, what does the future look like?

**Ed Zitron** (1:37)
Fuck.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:41)
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There are a number of things that you believe that a lot of other people don't believe. You have, I think, a couple of controversial opinions and opinions that are in contrast to the other guests that I've sat here with. What exactly are those opinions, Ed?

**Ed Zitron** (2:33)
I think generative AI is at its heart, Con. I don't think it is sold as honest software. I think that they overstate both what it can do, what it will do, and the underlying financials to the point that they are misleading the entire world and they're actively exploiting the weaknesses in journalism, in our economies, and indeed within the responsible parties with sell-side analysts, governments and all over the shop.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:57)
The word Con is a strong word.

**Ed Zitron** (2:59)
Yeah, I mean, what do you call something where from the very beginning they've sold it in the terms of magic, as this thing that will replace all jobs, that will cure cancers, all of these things. And when you look at it, it's boring cloud software that's extremely expensive and unprofitable, and also unreliable at its core.

**Steven Bartlett** (3:17)
People will be asking, where are you drawing from in terms of your references, your personal experiences, where you educate, what you study, what you write about, what you do, Ed?

**Ed Zitron** (3:24)
So that's the funny thing is people say, he's not going to finance experience, he's not going to tech. I've been in the tech industry 15, 16 years now, in PR, but still had practical experience, and I love technology, and I'm enthusiastic about it. And this thing just comes along, everyone is telling me it's the best thing since sliced bread. It can't even do the basics, it can't even do search. Whenever you ask an AI person, well, what's your setup? They describe this Peewees Playhouse thing of like, we got harness here, you got to use the right prompt. Well, you don't want to use that prompt. You want to use this prompt here with this model, but don't use this model for the beginning, but at the end, you're going to want to use this model.