I watched The AI Doc, a film that lets the doomers and the optimists both speak at full volume. Its maker ends up calling himself an apocaloptimist. In one scene he asks the head of a leading AI lab why anyone should trust him with this technology. The answer: “You shouldn’t.” The film then hands the job to the rest of us.
I’m an apocaloptimist too. I love what AI can do and I see what it can take. But I took that answer literally. If you shouldn’t trust them, don’t build your future on their platform alone. You can only hold your own opinion about AI if nobody else holds your data, your models and your infrastructure. Independence is something you build: open models, a platform you run, and always a way out.