Riley MacLeod, Aftermath:

This, I think, is what’s actually pissing the AI people off about Brownlee’s Humane review. He is clear that he has no fealty to them or their stock prices (“I literally don’t care what the stock price is of any company, of any product I review,” he says.) He even says in his video that “my reviews are technically not for” these products’ makers, which must be infuriating to our new Gilded Age robber barons who need constant reassurances of their genius. Because Brownlee isn’t in the business of promoting them or even talking to them, he’s not required to tout AI’s potential.

If you’ve missed The Discourse™ about MKBHD’s review of the Humane AI pin, Congrats! You’re not Extremely Online. But for those who do have a stake in the conversation, I think MacLeod’s piece I’ve linked above does a great job of summarizing both the situation and my personal beliefs on it.

I’ve expressed privately my confusion of the number of companies which grew to massive size not on the work they’ve delivered or the contributions they have made to our day-to-day lives, but more on the potential of doing so.

These reviews – and more specifically, the pearl-clutching of those who are insulted by reviewers, well, reviewing work – are the beginning (in my opinion) of a much needed reckoning.

Potential means nothing. Actions and reality are everything. I’m sorry that it took interest rates changing for a slue of folks to realize this, but you’re only worth what you actually do.