Episode 2331: The Week that Silicon Valley went from Woke to DOGE

It’s been quite a few days in Silicon Valley. "There are decades where nothing happens,” Lenin famously observed, “and there are weeks where decades happen”. As Andrew and Keith Teare reflect in their regular THAT WAS THE WEEK tech roundup, this was the week that Silicon Valley went from Woke to DOGE. It was the week that our Do No Evil friends @ Google slammed the door on diversity and embraced AI weapons technology. It was the week that Andreessen-Horowitz hired an ex-marine who choked to death a fellow passenger on the New York metro. And, of course, it was the week that Silicon Valley, in the form of DOGE, began the Palo-Altification of Washington DC. So, America, welcome to Silicon Valley. It’s going to be one hell of a disruption.

Here are the 5 KEEN ON Takeaways from Andrew and Keith’s conversation:

1. They discussed Keith's metaphor of society as a layered cake, with economics as the foundation, politics in the middle, and society on top. While Keith argued that economics drives human experience, Andrew challenged whether this should be taken as a given. This framed much of their discussion about current events in Silicon Valley and Washington DC.

2. They had differing views on DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and Elon Musk's role in it. Keith supported DOGE's mission to modernize and reduce government spending, while Andrew was more skeptical, particularly about the aggressive approach and potential impacts on vulnerable populations both inside and outside the United States.

3. The conversation highlighted a significant shift in tech company policies, noting that both Google and Amazon have removed diversity initiatives from their corporate practices. They also discussed Andreessen Horowitz's controversial hiring of Daniel Penny, viewing it as part of a larger cultural shift in Silicon Valley.

4. They discussed the growth of OpenAI and the evolution of AI technology, identifying three distinct types: large language models, reasoning AI (like OpenAI's new O3 Mini), and agent models. Keith noted that OpenAI has established a significant lead in the market, similar to Google's early dominance in search.

5. The conversation touched on significant changes in the relationship between tech companies and government, including Google removing its pledge not to use AI for weapons and increasing nationalism in tech policy. While Keith described himself as a globalist, he acknowledged he was "documenting and charting the rise of nationalism, the cooperation between tech and national interest."

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Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.

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Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.