AI Veteran With 40 Years in the Field: Governance Failures, Not Machines, Are the Real Threat
DavidLinthicum · x · 2026-10-02
David Linthicum, who has worked with AI since 1985, pushes back against the "machines are turning on us" narrative built on OpenAI incident disclosures and the METR/Redwood Research investigation. He argues the existential-threat story is sci-fi mythology (HAL 9000, Skynet) calcified into conventional wisdom — with real costs: companies have stalled or shelved productive AI initiatives after a board member read an incident summary. The actual risk, he contends, lies in organizational governance failures — lack of safe deployment practices, accountability and process design — and attention should shift from doom scenarios to operational governance.
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