How Big Tech Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bombs
Until quite recently, many Big Tech firms opposed the militarization of AI, but that now seems like ancient history as they move to sign partnerships with arms companies. The prospect of lavish Pentagon funding for AI is too tempting to refuse.
Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic were opposed to the use of AI tools for military purposes at the start of 2024. All of these companies had changed course within a year, with some moving quickly to sign partnerships with defense contractors. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
In any list of “known unknowns” facing the world in 2026, artificial intelligence must be close to the top. Are the predictions of widespread AI adoption displacing hundreds of millions of workers about to be realized? Will the AI bubble burst? Will the United States or China win the race to “artificial general intelligence”?
Nick Srnicek’s book Silicon Empires doesn’t answer any of these questions directly, but it does, as the author puts it, “offer a map of the terrain in which we must fight.” By carefully charting AI’s development within its proper economic and geopolitical context, and spanning analysis of both the US and China, Srnicek’s guide to AI can help us maintain a long-term, realistic perspective of the technology’s likely trajectory.
Beyond Bubbles and Chatbots
It’s no longer a fringe idea to say there is a bubble in AI, since this has even been acknowledged by industry darlings like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appears to already be positioning his company for a state bailout. One measurement of the AI bubble finds that it is seventeen times as large as the dot-com bubble and four times bigger than the subprime housing bubble that triggered the 2008 financial crash. A crisis is clearly in the making.
Sorry, but this article is available to active subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.