Tony Fadell, who is the creator of iPod and the founder of Nest Labs shared his views on the AI industry and its leaders at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco. He had a strong opinion also about OpenAI’s Sam Altman in addition to the risks and shortcomings that he shared about large language models (LLMs). During the conversation, Fadell spoke about his own experience in AI and criticised Altman’s way of doing things. He said, “I’ve been doing AI for 15 years, people, I’m not just spouting s—. I’m not Sam Altman, okay?”.
He even spoke about the limitations and risks of large language models (LLMs). Fadell expressed how he is concerned over their large-scale adoption while acknowledging the usefulness of LLMs in certain applications.
He argued that LLMs “are trying to be this ‘general’ thing because we’re trying to make science fiction happen… I hate know-it-alls.” However, Fadell took the side of AI agents that are tailored to specific tasks, with potential errors. This would not only let users know what they are working with but also allow them to “hire” AI more responsibly.
Tony Fadell also expressed his concerns about AI’s tendency for “hallucinations.” Basically, errors, when AI produces incorrect or misleading information. He highlighted a recent report that says ChatGPT-generated medical reports had a staggering 90% hallucination rate. According to him, such misuse of AI could have life-threatening consequences. “We are using this stuff, and we don’t even know how it works,” he warned.
Moreover, he also recalled how AI in household devices once sparked fear from his early experiences at Nest. “We couldn’t talk about AI; people would get scared… now everybody wants AI everywhere.” His comments served as a call for caution as AI technology integrates more deeply into everyday life.