Watching the habits of our tech overlords has answered questions I’d by no means thought to ask. How do you NDA a military of child mamas? Is there something extra embarrassing than impersonating Benson Boone? (Also, who’s Benson Boone?) And now, the most recent: how lengthy after a sovereign ruler of a repressive state murders certainly one of your columnists do you have to make a cope with him? The reply, it seems, is a little bit over six years.
In October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a author for the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, 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 May thirteenth, Bezos’ Amazon introduced it could work with Humain, MBS’ AI firm, to construct an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia — and the 2 firms will spend greater than $5 billion within the course of.
Saudi cash is outdated information within the tech trade — the Public Investment Fund has sloshed into numerous startups, both instantly or through intermediaries comparable to SoftBank. Morally bankrupt moneygrubbers comparable to Andreessen Horowitz have been wooing Saudi funds for some time. (Perhaps that’s the actual motive they endorsed the Saudis’ most popular candidate?) This isn’t the primary deal for Amazon, both. In March, Amazon pledged to take a position $5 billion to construct information facilities in a rustic that’s scrambling to look futuristic.
In 2024, Saudi Arabia stated it wished to construct an AI-powered economic system. There’s a elaborate 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 manufacturing will peak after which decline. Regardless of when the precise peak happens, a worldwide shift away from petroleum threatens Saudi Arabia’s wealth. That’s why the nation is behaving like a dipshit startup.
Take Neom, billed as town of the long run, vaporware at a beforehand unimagined scale that additionally served as a “key device” for MBS to consolidate energy, based on Ali Dogan, a researcher on the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. Khashoggi’s homicide was a blow to the undertaking, as luminaries comparable to OpenAI’s Sam Altman and former US power secretary Ernest Moniz suspended their involvement. Various firms publicly renounced Saudi cash — at the least, for some time.
Does the liberty to assassinate rely as one of many private liberties Bezos claims to treasure?
Neom is shifting down the totally predictable vaporware path. It retains getting delayed and downsized, which is smart as a result of it’s not town of the long run and a spectacular funding alternative as soon as it’s constructed — it’s simply one other metropolis. But, based on Saudi officers, we received’t have to fret about that for one more 50, or probably 100, years. In the meantime, although, contracts! Investment! AI!
Look, I don’t anticipate ethics out of Altman or any of his ilk. But for fundamental causes of sustaining worker morale, I might hesitate to spend money on a state that actually murdered certainly one of my contractors. And didn’t merely homicide him — however dismembered after which disappeared him. An alternative the state had solely as a result of Khashoggi wished to get married. Murder is dangerous sufficient, however each single element makes it worse.
Lately, it appears Bezos has been dismantling the Washington Post, one of many US’ premier journalistic establishments — placing British failure machine Will Lewis, identified for his position within the UK phone-hacking scandal, in cost. Last 12 months, the Post didn’t endorse a candidate within the US presidential race for the primary time since 1960, leading to greater than 200,000 canceled subscriptions. Its stars have been fleeing in droves. (Ann Telnaes, who was pushed to give up the Post after a cartoon making enjoyable of Bezos was killed, lately received a Pulitzer Prize for her work. Oops!) Now, in any case Bezos’ posturing in regards to the free press, he’s slicing offers with individuals who homicide journalists for saying inconvenient issues. But perhaps we should always have seen that coming when he banned op-ed writers from opposing “free speech and the markets.” Does the liberty to assassinate rely as one of many private liberties Bezos claims to treasure?
It’s all so spineless. I imply, we already know that MBS might have hacked Bezos’ cellphone, however I suppose that’s water below the bridge. Or perhaps not. Maybe MBS received one thing actual good in that hack. Impossible to say whether or not that is motivated by kompromat or greed, I suppose. But regardless of the motive, we all know one factor: it takes 5 years for Bezos to go from posting his picture op with the gravestone of a murdered reporter to creating billion-dollar offers together with his killer.
