Something related that I find interesting, for people inside a company, the real rival isn’t another company doing the same thing, but people in your own company doing a different thing.
Imagine you work at Microsoft in the AI research team in 2021. Management want to cut R&D spending, so either your lot or the team doing quantum computer research are going to be redundant soon. Then, the timeline splits. In one universe, Open AI release Chat GPT, in the other PsiQuantum do something super impressive with quantum stuff. In which of those universes do the Microsoft AI team do well? In one, promotions and raises, in the other, redundancy.
People recognise this instinctively. Changing companies is much faster and easier than changing specialities. So people care primarily about their speciality doing well, their own specific company is a secondary concern.
A fusion expert can expert at a different fusion company way faster and more easily than they can become an expert in wind turbines. Therefore, to the fusion expert all fusion companies are on the same side against the abominable wind farmers. I suspect this is also true of most people in AI, although maybe when talking to the press they will be honour bound to claim otherwise.
I wonder if any of the perceived difference between fusion and AI might be which information sources are available to you. It sounds like you have met the fusion people, and read their trade magazines, and are comparing that to what mainstream news says about AI companies (which won’t necessarily reflect the opinions of a median AI researcher.).
Something related that I find interesting, for people inside a company, the real rival isn’t another company doing the same thing, but people in your own company doing a different thing.
Imagine you work at Microsoft in the AI research team in 2021. Management want to cut R&D spending, so either your lot or the team doing quantum computer research are going to be redundant soon. Then, the timeline splits. In one universe, Open AI release Chat GPT, in the other PsiQuantum do something super impressive with quantum stuff. In which of those universes do the Microsoft AI team do well? In one, promotions and raises, in the other, redundancy.
People recognise this instinctively. Changing companies is much faster and easier than changing specialities. So people care primarily about their speciality doing well, their own specific company is a secondary concern.
A fusion expert can expert at a different fusion company way faster and more easily than they can become an expert in wind turbines. Therefore, to the fusion expert all fusion companies are on the same side against the abominable wind farmers. I suspect this is also true of most people in AI, although maybe when talking to the press they will be honour bound to claim otherwise.
I wonder if any of the perceived difference between fusion and AI might be which information sources are available to you. It sounds like you have met the fusion people, and read their trade magazines, and are comparing that to what mainstream news says about AI companies (which won’t necessarily reflect the opinions of a median AI researcher.).