Are AI companies exaggerating risks to get a government bailout? Diverse voices are calling out AI companies for overselling current AI dangers to stoke fear and get cash. From AOC to BlackRock, people are skeptical about the AI chiefs' sudden concern for safety.
On September 18, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a statement about the sudden concern among AI CEOs about their technology. The congresswoman noted that Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAl and Elon Musk all warned that AI could get out of control.
AOC’s statement acknowledged that AI safety concerns must be taken seriously; she is skeptical of the new caution from AI CEOs:
“Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good. The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to finance themselves in 2026 alone."
Former BlackRock Executive: AI Using An Old Con
Former BlackRock fund manager Ed Dowd said the AI industry is using an "old con" that will blow up in people's faces. Dowd said:
"This is an old con. Hollywood movies have been made about this, and senators have been caught doing this...you grease the skids to get the approvals, then you sell that land, [and get] some shadow LLCs in the Cayman Islands [to serve as the facade in your end of the sale], and you make millions."
The former BlackRock executive said the shady tactics used by AI companies have been going on "since the railroad-building days." Dowd noted that the AI companies are going to wipe out people with their scheme:
"[But] I think these guys have gotten ahead of themselves, and I think a lot of these guys are going to be left holding the bag on the land that they bought...[And] this [AI] frenzy is going to burst... and bubbles work on everybody... Insiders get swept up in it too..."
The New York Post reports that OpenAI and Anthropic oversold the dangers of "rouge AI" attacks so the government will bail them out and protect them from competitors. Akhil Verghese, founder of AI software company Krazimo, told the outlet:
"The attack in no way represents some sort of rebellion by the AI models... In fact, they did exactly what they were told to do. They were not given adequate guardrails or containment."
AI is Good for Creating Donald Duck with a Machine Gun
AI critic Ed Zitron has been calling out Silicon Valley broligarchs for exaggerating AI risks to cover up their horrible business model. During an interview on "Fast Politics with Molly Jong Fast," Zitron said that AI startups are unprofitable at a rate that can't be compared to other industries. Many successful startups lost millions in the beginning, but Zitron says AI business models aren't grounded in reality. Zitron told Jong Fast:
"Amazon lost $53 billion over 11 years. Uber lost $32 billion over 5-6 years. OpenAI lost $21 billion in 2025...These companies burn money; they have no path to profitability."
According to Zitron, AI doesn't do very much right now. He gave an example of AI capabilities in 2026:
"You ask ChatGPT for a picture of Scooby Doo with a gun, it spits it out."
"It's all an attempt to deceive and make you think of a technology that doesn't exist, but judge the one that does today as if it's inevitable. It becomes that, as if LLMs will magically become this autonomous, reliable software. But they've never ever been. There is no sign of it."
