Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: Telling tales about tech bros

Mar 28, 2024, 6:06 PM | Updated: 6:31 pm

"Burn Book," by longtime Silicon Valley reporter Kara Swisher is seen, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, in San Ramon, Calif. The book is published by Simon and Schuster. (AP Photo/Michael Liedtke)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Michael Liedtke)

BY JEFF CAPLAN

Host, Jeff Caplan's Afternoon News

Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.

SALT LAKE CITY — The number one journalist covering Silicon Valley has written a new autobiography. This should be interesting because — as Kara Swisher points out — all these tech bros hate her.

Here’s what she said Elon Musk said about her.

“My voice is so shrill, only dogs can hear me. And that my heart is seething with hate.”

She knows Musk. In fact, Swisher has interviewed all of these guys and basically says… they’re full of it. Making noise about changing the world, but when you look behind the curtain it’s all about the money.

She describes a bunch of brash young men who were lucky enough to make gazillions doing one thing, who now think they’re geniuses about everything. Little boy-kings filled with self-loathing and crying at their victims as they take their private jets to their armored cars, to their home office on an island.

And now these bros who bristle at the rest of us have created AI. Artificial intelligence. The creators are banking their billions while sneering at normal people, so call this irony. While their workplaces are rife with toxic masculinity, it turns out that when you interact with ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot, you get better answers if you’re polite. That’s according to a new research paper that basically says you’re better off asking “Would you like a spot of tea?” instead of “Hey knucklehead… write me a business plan.”

If you’re shrill, AI will end up railing about Hitler or giving you crazy bad results.

By the way, there is one Tech Giant that Kara Swisher respects: The late Steve Jobs. Because he was curious about the rest of the world, the arts, literature, and us. Not just himself.

Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X.