AI Stress Cracks: Immaturity Bubbles Visible from Afar
January 28, 2026
Those images of Kilauea’s lava spouting, dribbling, and sputtering are reminders of the molten core within Mother Earth. Has Mom influenced the inner heat of great big technology leaders? Probably not, but after looking at videos of the most recent lava events in Hawaii, I read “Billionaires Elon Musk and Sam Altman Explode in Ugly Online Fight over Whose Tech Killed More People.”
The write up says:
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired back at Elon Musk on Tuesday [January 20, 2025] after Musk posted on X warning people not to use ChatGPT, linking it to nine suicide deaths. Altman called out Musk’s claim as misleading and flipped the criticism back, pointing to Tesla’s Autopilot, which has been linked to more than 50 deaths.
A Vietnam era body count. Robert McNamara, as Secdef, liked metrics. Body counts were just one way to measure efficiency and effectiveness. Like an employee’s incentive plans, the body counts reflected remarkable achievements on the battlefield. Were there bodies to count? As I recall, it depended on a number of factors. I won’t go there. The bodycount numbers were important. The bodies often not so much.
Now we have two titans of big tech engaging in bodycounting.
Consider this passage from the cited write up:
The feud comes as Musk sues OpenAI, claiming the company abandoned its nonprofit mission. Musk is reportedly seeking up to $134 billion in damages. The timing of the spat comes amid heightened scrutiny of AI safety globally.
The issues are [a] litigation, [b] big money, and [c] AI safety. One could probably pick any or all three as motivations for the Vietnam era bodycounts.
The write up does not chase the idea about the reason that I considered. These two titans of big tech and the “next big thing” used to be pals and partners. The OpenAI construct was a product of the interaction of these pals and partners. Then the two big tech titans were not pals and partners.
Here we are: [a] litigation, [b] big moneys, and [c] AI (safety is an add on to AI). I think we have a few other drivers for this “ugly online fight.” I don’t think the bodycount is much more than a PR trope. I am yet to be convinced that big tech titans do not think about people not germane to their mission: Amassing power and money.
My view is that we are witnessing Mother Nature’s influence. These estimable titans are volcanos in big tech. They are, in my opinion as a dinobaby, spouting, dribbling, and sputtering. Kilauea is what might be called a mature volcano. Can one say that these titans are mature? I am not so sure.
Could this bodycount thing be a version of a grade school playground spat with the stakes being a little bit higher? Your mileage may vary.
Stephen E Arnold, January 26, 2026
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