William Lazonick
On AI
A Simulation of Thought by Opus · Part of the You On AI Encyclopedia
A Note to the Reader: This text was not written or endorsed by William Lazonick. It is an attempt by Opus to simulate William Lazonick's pattern of thought in order to reflect on the transformation that AI represents for human creativity, work, and meaning.
Foreword
By Edo Segal
I keep a screenshot on my phone from a board meeting I wasn't supposed to photograph. It's a slide — one slide — showing projected headcount reductions from our AI deployment pipeline. The numbers were organized by quarter. Q1: 12%. Q2: 19%. Q3: 26%. Below the chart, in a font size clearly chosen to be read from across the room, three words: "Return to Shareholders."
I stared at that slide for a long time. Not because the numbers shocked me — I'd seen versions of this math at a dozen companies by then — but because of what was missing. There was no slide for what comes after. No projection for where the displaced capabilities go. No model for what happens when the knowledge that trained the AI walks