Watching the habits of our tech overlords has answered questions I’d by no means thought to ask. How do you NDA an army of baby mamas? Is there something extra embarrassing than impersonating Benson Boone? (Additionally, who’s Benson Boone?) And now, the newest: how lengthy after a sovereign ruler of a repressive state murders one in all your columnists must you make a cope with him? The reply, it seems, is just a little over six years.
In October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a author for the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Publish, was killed and dismembered with the approval of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (higher often known as MBS) after Khashoggi entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage. His physique has by no means been discovered. On Might thirteenth, Bezos’ Amazon introduced it could work with Humain, MBS’ AI firm, to construct an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia — and the two companies will spend more than $5 billion in the process.
Saudi cash is old news in the tech industry — the Public Funding Fund has sloshed into a number of startups, both instantly or by way of intermediaries similar to SoftBank. Morally bankrupt moneygrubbers similar to Andreessen Horowitz have been wooing Saudi funds for a while. (Maybe that’s the true motive they endorsed the Saudis’ preferred candidate?) This isn’t the primary deal for Amazon, both. In March, Amazon pledged to invest $5 billion to construct knowledge facilities in a rustic that’s scrambling to look futuristic.
In 2024, Saudi Arabia stated it needed to construct an AI-powered economic system. There’s a flowery web site for Project 2030, which I suppose is supposed to distract us from all of the oil cash. That date isn’t a coincidence — many projections say that’s when oil production will peak after which decline. No matter when the precise peak happens, a world shift away from petroleum threatens Saudi Arabia’s wealth. That’s why the nation is behaving like a dipshit startup.
Take Neom, billed as the town of the longer term, vaporware at a beforehand unimagined scale that additionally served as a “key instrument” for MBS to consolidate energy, according to Ali Dogan, a researcher on the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. Khashoggi’s homicide was a blow to the undertaking, as luminaries similar to OpenAI’s Sam Altman and former US vitality secretary Ernest Moniz suspended their involvement. Various corporations publicly renounced Saudi cash — at the least, for some time.
Does the liberty to assassinate depend as one of many private liberties Bezos claims to treasure?
Neom is transferring down the completely predictable vaporware path. It retains getting delayed and downsized, which is sensible as a result of it’s not the town of the longer term and a spectacular funding alternative as soon as it’s constructed — it’s simply one other metropolis. However, in response to Saudi officers, we gained’t have to fret about that for an additional 50, or probably 100, years. Within the meantime, although, contracts! Funding! AI!
Look, I don’t anticipate ethics out of Altman or any of his ilk. However for fundamental causes of sustaining worker morale, I might hesitate to spend money on a state that actually murdered one in all my contractors. And didn’t merely homicide him — however dismembered after which disappeared him. A possibility the state had solely as a result of Khashoggi needed to get married. Homicide is dangerous sufficient, however each single element makes it worse.
Recently, it appears Bezos has been dismantling the Washington Publish, one of many US’ premier journalistic establishments — placing British failure machine Will Lewis, recognized for his function within the UK phone-hacking scandal, in cost. Final 12 months, the Post didn’t endorse a candidate within the US presidential race for the primary time since 1960, leading to more than 200,000 canceled subscriptions. Its stars have been fleeing in droves. (Ann Telnaes, who was driven to quit the Publish after a cartoon making enjoyable of Bezos was killed, lately gained a Pulitzer Prize for her work. Oops!) Now, in any case Bezos’ posturing concerning the free press, he’s slicing offers with individuals who homicide journalists for saying inconvenient issues. However possibly we must always have seen that coming when he banned op-ed writers from opposing “free speech and the markets.” Does the liberty to assassinate depend as one of many private liberties Bezos claims to treasure?
It’s all so spineless. I imply, we already know that MBS may have hacked Bezos’ phone, however I suppose that’s water underneath the bridge. Or possibly not. Possibly MBS received one thing actual good in that hack. Inconceivable to say whether or not that is motivated by kompromat or greed, I suppose. However regardless of the motive, we all know one factor: it takes 5 years for Bezos to go from posting his photo op with the headstone of a murdered reporter to creating billion-dollar offers together with his killer.