“It’s happening. The question is whether it’s a dream or a nightmare. This week, OpenAI introduced Pulse, an AI assistant that knows what we want to do and think before we do. That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare welcomes Pulse as a “habit” that will “shape your day.” Unlike the techno-teleological Keith, however, I’m less enamored by Pulse. Do we really want a proactive AI assistant that not only controls what Keith calls the “front door” but every other door (and window) in our lives? Keith describes this as the “consumer install moment” - Sam Altman’s $10 trillion bet on ‘Abundant Intelligence.’ But what, exactly, is so abundant about this personalized machine intelligence that installs itself into our lives? Having a smart assistant determine our daily calendar might actually make us dumber. Such an “agentic” future is certainly no friend of human agency. Yeah, it’s happening. The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?
* The “Front Door” Battle is On: OpenAI’s Pulse represents a strategic shift from reactive search to proactive assistance, with tech giants racing to control the primary interface through which we interact with information and make decisions.
* Privacy Becomes an Afterthought: While OpenAI claims privacy protections, most users don’t understand what data these AI assistants access. The $200/month price point currently limits exposure, but mass adoption will create unprecedented privacy challenges.
* The Infrastructure Gold Rush: Sam Altman’s 10-gigawatt power deals and NVIDIA’s GPU dominance reveal the massive energy and capital investment required to scale AI - with an $800 billion gap between current investment and projected revenue.
* “Consumer Pull” is Driving the Boom: Unlike previous tech bubbles, AI demand from actual users (not just hype) is outstripping supply, forcing companies to race to build data centers and power infrastructure to meet real usage.
* The “Idiocracy Trap” Question: As AI assistants take over more cognitive tasks - from scheduling to decision-making - we face a fundamental question about whether this technology will enhance human intelligence or create dependency that makes us collectively dumber.
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