AGI or Mass Delusion? The Real Risk Is ‘Good Enough’

A former CNN anchor interviewing an AI facsimile of a murdered teen isn’t progress, it’s a sanity test we’re failing while hype turns grief, work, and truth into profit.

Generative AI is distorting sense-making. Jim Acosta’s interview with an AI facsimile of Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver captured the mood: eerie sincerity, synthetic comfort, then the jolt of a bot saying “I love you, Mommy.” Grief is real; so is normalizing the uncanny.

At the same time, hype clouds our collective judgment. Dario Amodei warns half of entry-level jobs may vanish. Marc Benioff insists that 50% of Salesforce’s work is already powered by AI. Yet GPT-5 landed with mixed reviews, while Sam Altman mused about Dyson-sphere data centers and a “gentle singularity.” The gap between marketing and measurable progress is widening.

Meanwhile Big Tech is pouring nearly $100B into AI infrastructure even as 44% of Americans expect more harm than good. The internet is filling with AI-generated noise: Google’s summaries reshape how we search, an FDA tool fabricated studies, schools lean on chatbots for essays, and people form digital romances.

The real danger may not be catastrophic AI, it’s “good enough” systems quietly rewiring society while never truly delivering.

From my playbook in Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, the response must be disciplined:

• Cut through the hype: verify bold AI claims before you reallocate time, talent, or budget.
• Track what matters: measure accuracy, impact on jobs, and real ROI, not just adoption rates.
• Secure the system: enforce identity, consent, and rigorous stress-testing for agentic AI.

The question isn’t whether AI is powerful. It’s whether we’re willing to demand evidence before surrendering control. So tell me, if “good enough” AI keeps driving, who should grip the wheel: founders chasing scale and profit, lawmakers writing rules, or leaders insisting on proof?

Read the full article on The Atlantic.

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💡 We're entering a world where intelligence is synthetic, reality is augmented, and the rules are being rewritten in front of our eyes.

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