Adrian Daub argues Silicon Valley has traded its promise for power

Adrian Daub argues that Silicon Valley’s influence has grown even as its ability to sell the public an inspiring vision of the future has faded. In an excerpt from his new book, he treats AI hype as part of that political and cultural shift, not just a story about new technology.

Watch Desk analysis

What happened

Political Research Associates has published an edited excerpt from Daub’s book What Tech Calls Governing. Daub argues that technology companies have moved from promising to transform the world to exercising power over work, politics and media. He describes the AI boom as three intertwined forces: the technology itself, the public imagination around it, and the hype built around both.

The essay points to tech leaders’ warnings about AI alongside their promotion of AI products, and argues that those warnings can function as part of the sales pitch. That is Daub’s interpretation, not a settled account of what AI will do or of the motives behind any individual’s statements.

Why it matters

The argument shifts the question from whether AI will transform particular industries to who gets to define that future, and whose interests it serves. It also challenges the familiar habit of treating predictions about AI as neutral forecasts, when they may also help shape public expectations and policy.

Our read

Daub offers a pointed lens for reading the AI boom: watch not only the promised capabilities, but also who is making the promises and what power they help normalise. The essay is openly critical, so its sweeping claims are best read as an argument to test rather than a verdict handed down from the mountain.

What to watch

• Whether AI policy debates give more weight to the people affected by deployment, not only the people building it.
• Whether tech leaders’ public warnings and product pitches continue to travel together.
• How the balance between promised benefits and concentrated power develops in practice.

Discussion spark: Should public debate about AI focus mainly on what the technology can do, or on who gains power from deciding how it is built and used?

Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.