It’s the eve of our great nation’s birth, and the Pirate Wires team is off for the holiday. So it’s just me today, your intrepid captain, celebrating his own birthday (the 1st) alone with a bottle of rum commandeered from a federalist vessel, scanning the Clown World horizon for laughs, kindly nerds besieged by tech press sociopaths, and rare signs of sanity. Just like old times.

Today, our subject is the chaotic AI discourse, which seems entirely determined — as with pretty much everything else — by incentives. Do our expert talking heads believe they’ll be making billions from the AI utopia, or do they rather feel they missed the opportunity? Here, a fantastic piece on the powerful, well-moneyed interests shaping our national conversation on artificial intelligence from an insider close to the subject, my friend and colleague John Luttig, an investor for Founders Fund. If you enjoy this piece, check out John’s Substack, Luttig’s Learnings (he only shares an essay a few times a year, so they’re always pretty thoughtful, and never clog your inbox).

Godspeed, and Happy Independence Day.