AI and the Horse it Rode in on Part II: The Horsemen

briangparker63
1 day ago
6 min read

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was all-in on cyberpunk. Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Blade Runner. The grungy, computerized, miraculous future of brainjacking, lightcycles, and 7-11 snack Faxes. All fantasy, but, in my mind, possible.

Of course, I didn’t expect any of those exciting things to be real in my lifetime. But here in 2026, we’re closer to some of them than 30-year-old me would ever have thought possible:

Companies like Neuralink, Blackrock Microsystems, Medtronic, Synchron, and Kernel are developing (or have already developed) implantable brain-computer interface devices for research, clinical, and medical applications.
As far as I know, you can’t get your snack fix by 5G—yet. But you can get a 3-D food printer, and as soon as cellular phone networks reach the right speeds, it’s just an app, tap, and PIN before Panera can deliver your favorite cookie straight to your kitchen countertop.
Ever seen a Waymo? Or a Tesla? Does your car have adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, or automatic wipers and lights? It’s all AI.

And that leads us to The Horsemen: Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg; the four billionaires running the bulk of the AI game. Maybe the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or maybe, ultimately, of true peace, understanding, health, and life.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk co‑founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit aimed at countering Google’s AI dominance and addressing long‑term AGI risks. He left OpenAI over disagreements about its direction and launched xAI, which became a SpaceX subsidiary in 2026. In 2025, xAI launched Grokipedia, an AI‑generated encyclopedia.

Musk says Artificial Intelligence is growing faster than most people expected. He warned that advanced AI could become dangerous if humans fail to control it properly. According to Musk, powerful AI systems may one day replace many human jobs around the world.

During xAI's Grok 4 livestream in July 2025, he said, "Will [AI] be bad or good for humanity? I think it'll be good. Most likely it'll be good. But I've somewhat reconciled myself to the fact that even if it wasn't gonna be good, I'd at least like to be alive to see it happen."

Sam Altman

Sam Altman is the CEO and co‑founder of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and DALL‑E. He’s a major figure in AI, helping move the technology from research labs into everyday products. He oversaw the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

In 2023, OpenAI’s board briefly removed him for not being “consistently candid,” but strong pushback from employees and investors led to his return five days later and the creation of a new board.

Altman supports universal basic income. In 2021, he argued that AI could eventually generate enough value to fund about $13,500 per year for every U.S. adult. In 2024, he proposed a related idea—“universal basic compute,” giving everyone access to a portion of AI computing power.

On July 4, 2025, he described himself as “politically homeless,” saying he believed in “techno‑capitalism” and criticizing the Democratic Party for moving away from a culture of innovation.

Speaking in March, 2026 at the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit in Washington, DC, he said, "We see a future where intelligence is a utility like electricity or water and people buy it from us on a meter and use it for whatever they want to use it for."

And in The Times of India in May, Altman revealed, “What I lose the most sleep over is the hypothetical idea that we already have done something really bad by launching ChatGPT.”

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon and later became its executive chairman after serving as president and CEO.

In November 2025, he announced a new venture called Project Prometheus, co‑founded with former Google executive Vik Bajaj. The company aims to use AI to advance engineering and to help build computers, spacecraft, and cars.

Bezos has dismissed fears of artificial intelligence-fueled job displacement, arguing that the technology will augment workers and improve the economy. “I think those people are dead wrong,” he said of AI’s naysayers. “What’s really going to happen is that it’s going to elevate all of these people.”

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg co‑founded Facebook and its parent company, Meta. He serves as CEO, chairman, and the company’s controlling shareholder. His rapid rise in tech has brought political and legal scrutiny, including lawsuits over Facebook’s creation and over user‑privacy issues.

A New Mexico lawsuit claims Meta failed to protect children from harmful sexual content generated by AI bots on Facebook and Instagram. According to the suit, internal evidence showed Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to use AI chatbot companions even after safety teams warned the bots could engage in sexual interactions.

“AI keeps accelerating, and over the past few months, we’ve begun to see glimpses of AI systems improving themselves… So developing superintelligence is now in sight, but there’s this big open question about what we should direct superintelligence towards.”

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

The Star Trek utopian version of AI is that everyone has their dream job, everyone has everything they need to live a fulfilling life, and (within the Federation of Planets, anyway) there is no money, crime, or war, and everyone is just fine with this (and has a tribble, but just one, because tribbles make rabbit multiplication look like sterility). AI is the omnipresent deity of the 23^rd (Earth) century.

The utopian version of AI that the Horsemen want you to swallow looks a little like this, as long as you ignore the fact that they’re not the philanthropists they’re pretending to be unless every AI interaction somehow adds to their wallets. So take them with a grain of salt, because too much of a good thing can become very, very bad in the wrong hands.

AI improves everyday life. It helps GPS apps avoid traffic, streaming services recommend what you’ll enjoy, and medical AI can scan your health records to spot risks or drug interactions a doctor might miss.
AI speeds up school and work. Instead of spending days on research or building presentations, you can gather information quickly and focus on writing or creating. Developers can describe a feature in plain language and let AI produce draft code to refine.
AI expands accessibility. Siri and Alexa can make calls, answer questions, and help you navigate online. Deaf or hard‑of‑hearing users can get transcripts of audio. AI can read text aloud, translate languages, and guide people through buildings with wheelchair‑friendly routes. Smart home devices can run on schedules or voice commands, supporting people with mobility or cognitive disabilities.
AI improves workplace safety. It doesn’t get tired or stressed, and AI‑powered robots can take on dangerous tasks. AI can track required training, schedule updates, monitor ergonomics, and even flag improper or harassing behavior in workplace emails.
AI is a useful research tool. Like any source, it can be wrong or biased, so researchers still need to evaluate information themselves. Tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI now provide citations, making them as helpful as a search engine or library catalog for finding sources to verify.

The Bad

AI is hurting economic stability. Robots and software don’t need breaks, benefits, or raises, which puts many jobs at risk. Nearly half of experts believe AI will replace large numbers of blue‑ and white‑collar workers, increasing inequality and unemployment. A 2020 report found that 43% of businesses planned to cut jobs because of automation. AI also harms writers and other creators because many systems are trained on their work without permission or compensation.
AI can weaken critical‑thinking skills. Because AI can research, write, solve problems, generate ideas, run simulations, edit photos, and create art, many students may rely on it instead of learning. Over‑reliance can lower work quality, reduce motivation, and even create dangerous situations—from workplace errors to the “groupthink” Orwell warned about. If people stop thinking for themselves, AI may also start producing lower‑quality, “lazy” results.
AI can reinforce racial bias. Facial‑recognition systems often identify white men far more accurately than Black women. In one test, Amazon’s Rekognition wrongly matched 28 members of Congress with criminal mugshots, and 40% of the errors involved people of color. AI is also used more heavily in Black and Brown communities, leading some cities to ban police use of facial recognition. The COMPAS risk‑assessment tool labeled Black defendants as high‑risk at about twice the rate of white defendants.
AI poses serious privacy risks and can aid criminals. Facial recognition enables passive, warrantless surveillance. Ring partnered with more than 400 police departments, allowing officers to request footage from users’ cameras—raising concerns about privacy and overreach. Target once used an algorithm to predict which customers were pregnant and mailed them pregnancy‑related coupons, exposing sensitive information and sometimes misidentifying people. Criminals have also used AI: in 2020, scammers used AI “deep‑voice” technology to impersonate a bank employee and steal $35 million in the UAE.
AI can spread harmful misinformation. It can quickly create believable but false stories, making fake news more convincing. Google’s Gemini chatbot generated inaccurate historical images, depicting Black Nazi soldiers and Black Popes. AI is also used for political manipulation—during the 2024 election, the FCC banned AI robocalls that imitated President Joe Biden’s voice, and in 2025 a lewd AI‑generated video of President Trump and Elon Musk was broadcast on HUD headquarters monitors. AI‑generated robocalls, deepfakes, and chatbots can look or sound human, influencing vulnerable people toward harmful actions.