David Sacks, the longtime Silicon Valley investor turned special adviser to the White House for AI and crypto, has weighed in on the AI “doomer” debate.
In a widely discussed
post on X, Sacks wrote that the fearmongering in recent years about AI’s malevolence is deeply misguided and humanity remains firmly in the driver’s seat.
Sacks added that job loss fears are overhyped, and instead, people stand to benefit most by learning to harness AI for new opportunities.
Also, Sacks argued, the ultimate doomer prediction of the technology spiraling into an uncontrollable, superintelligent dominance out of a science-fiction movie hasn’t come to pass.
“The Doomer narratives were wrong,” he wrote, adding: “Right now the current situation is Goldilocks.”
Sacks offered four reasons that AI’s impact on the economy is just fine, actually.
First, there’s vigorous competition in the space and companies are “leapfrogging each other” with each new model released, he wrote—demonstrating that no godlike superintelligence is running away with the lead.
Second, the spread of open source AI blunts monopolistic tendencies and democratizes innovation, a major check against doomer fears.
Third, there is, and will likely remain, a clear vision of labor between generalized foundation models and vertical applications that address specific needs, he argued.
Fourth, today’s models are proving to really need humans at the wheel. Wrote Sacks: “Models need context, they must be heavily prompted, the output must be verified, and this process must be repeated iteratively to achieve meaningful business value.”
—Nick Lichtenberg 
