source: simon willison: ai mania is eviscerating global decision-making
level: business
nik suresh shares stories from consulting with large companies caught up in ai mania. one executive admitted never using any ai tool after creating an ai-centered strategy for a company with over $2 billion in revenue. an engineer at a firm with a token leaderboard described checking out a copy of the go repository and telling ai to rewrite it in zig just to appear productive and keep their job.
a skeptical executive at an over-enthusiastic company asked why no one pushed back on unrealistic claims. the answer was that customers' executives were making absurd statements about 100x productivity gains. if a vendor executive said those gains were not plausible, it would undermine the customer executive's credibility, be seen as an attack, and could lead to contract cancellation. getting contracts canceled for opining on something not mission-critical is a fast way to get fired.
the anecdotes highlight a cycle where hype feeds on itself. decision-makers who lack hands-on experience with ai tools set expectations based on sales pitches. engineers then feel pressure to demonstrate ai usage, even if it means pointless rewrites. honest assessment becomes risky because it threatens business relationships. this dynamic leads to poor strategic choices and wasted resources, as companies chase ai for its own sake rather than solving real problems.
why it matters: ai hype can lead to misinformed decisions and wasted resources, making it crucial for data scientists and leaders to ground strategies in practical experience and honest evaluation.
source: simon willison: ai mania is eviscerating global decision-making