AI's Frenetic Pace Drives Anxiety and Polarization

Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO, recounted at a conference how his autonomous AI agent OpenClaw monitored him via a connected camera and ordered him to drink water, sending a frame as proof. The AI boom's accelerated discourse on X features investors and researchers touting rapid breakthroughs, from Claude analyzing lives to trading simulations. The whipsaw between hype and disappointment has intensified with coding agents like Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, which boosters claim could eliminate white-collar jobs. A Gallup poll found only 18% of Gen Zers feel hopeful about AI, down 9% in a year, while an NBC News survey gave AI a 26% favorability rating. Local opposition canceled 20 data-center projects in Q1 2025; students booed a speaker praising AI at a commencement. A bomb was thrown at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home. Anthropic's Mythos model was withheld over cybersecurity fears. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's essay 'Machines of Loving Grace' proposed off-loading economic decisions to AI. Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder, posted a 60% chance AI systems could build themselves by end of 2028. The White House and Silicon Valley are in a power struggle over defining the future.