Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Is There A Vibe Shift in Silicon Valley? [PATREON EXCLUSIVE]

Starting point is 00:00:00 You can't even build a accounting software company if it's going to take you 10 years to do it. Over the past few years, Silicon Valley startups have been becoming more and more dystopian. We've seen the rise of crypto, gambling, AI friends, and other products that sound like they were ripped straight from Black Mirror. But lately, there's been a little bit of a backlash, just a little bit. A couple months ago, Mark Andreessen tried to dunk on the Pope for asking for safety and AI development and got absolutely dragged by his peers. More and more founders are also talking about building things with purpose and intention. Some of that stuff that's with purpose and intention is actually just sort of weapon systems and surveillance systems.

Starting point is 00:00:43 But Silicon Valley might be having a vibe shift. John Coogan is the host of TBPN, a daily live show that's kind of like Sports Center for the tech world. He and his co-host, Jordi, are the go-to guys for what's going on in Silicon Valley. And today, John is joining me to discuss whether Silicon Valley is. actually going through a vibe shift, what current trends are coming out of the tech world that you probably haven't heard of yet and what the right word shift in Silicon Valley really reveals.

Starting point is 00:01:09 John, welcome to Power User. Thanks so much for having me. Good to be here. So excited to have you here. I feel like you are so tapped in to Silicon Valley and all the drama. You keep me up to date with what's going on on Tech Twitter, even though we're both in LA. I want to talk to you about kind of this viral event

Starting point is 00:01:25 that happened recently, but I think is indicative of this breaker shift. So a couple weeks ago, the Pope tweeted a statement about AI. He said, technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation, carries an ethical and spiritual weight. And he basically implored people developing AI technology to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and genuine reverence for life. And this seemed to create some sort of meltdown on tech Twitter.

Starting point is 00:01:51 Mark Andreessen replied with this image of this GQ writer kind of like shitting on it. And I'm curious kind of like, I guess, what your reaction to it is. Maybe this is the first time. I feel like it's the first time that I've seen tech. People really start to maybe question a lot of these products that they're building. If you go back a year or two ago,

Starting point is 00:02:09 past the chat GPT moment, there was some real debate in the tech community around AI Dumerism, the Eleazar Utikowsky World View. This idea that runaway AI acceleration could result in sort of the Terminator scenario. Everyone gets turning into paperclosy, Now it's a lot more about the way the products get built. And I think people are less worried about the truly crazy existential runaway AI stuff,

Starting point is 00:02:40 mostly because over the past few years, the models have been progressing. But it doesn't feel like things are changing as dramatically. Like going from pre-chat GPT to post-JATGBTGPT was a crazy, crazy moment, right? It was like, the computer talks now. What? Like, that's insane, right? And then we expected that level of qualitative step up every six months. And then it was really like, okay, yeah, the computer talks, but like just like a little bit better.

Starting point is 00:03:06 The vibe has moved farther away from will this end humanity be this crazy sci-fi scenario. And more about the practical where the rubber meets the road on are these products going to make people happier or more sad? Are they going to have misinformation in them? How can they be relied upon? How are they going to monetize if they have ads? Is that going to reduce the quality of information? Basically, is there going to be like an editorial barrier or some sort of firewall between the facts that they're trying to produce and then the products that they're trying to sell you?

Starting point is 00:03:37 This is something tech has grappled with for years across social media and Google. There's always been a question of how the business model matches to the product quality.

Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Is There A Vibe Shift in Silicon Valley? [PATREON EXCLUSIVE]

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