Former Indeed CEO Chris Hyams thinks AI’s risk doesn’t come from the tech, but from those ‘responsible for driving it’ |
Former Indeed CEO Chris Hyams thinks AI’s risk doesn’t come from the tech, but from those ‘responsible for driving it’
In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to Chris Hyams about life after Indeed
The big leadership story: Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen’s surprise resignation
The markets: Down across Asia
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Former Indeed CEO Chris Hyams didn’t leave Big Tech because he lost faith in AI. He left because he lost faith in the way it’s being unleashed.
“There’s so much counter‑messaging around AI that’s either utopia or doom,” Hyams told me yesterday. “I’m a big believer in the potential of the technology, but I have extraordinary concern about the people who are responsible for driving it.”
The people he’s referring to are leaders like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who tend to share a utopian narrative that AI will make work optional and our lives longer. None go out of their way to encourage AI regulation or limits on how their technology is used. Hyams singles out the beleaguered Dario Amodei of Anthropic as the “one bright light” and “best of the bunch,” noting that standing up for what’s right has required being private or a founder with considerable power.
Hyams left Indeed in June after more than six years as CEO, saying he wanted to work on making sure technology was being developed with humanity at its core. It sounded like another anodyne press release: a CEO leaving for personal reasons, perhaps with a grudge. But that’s not true. Hyams stayed on as an advisor and spoke highly of parent Recruit Holdings and its CEO, “Deko” Hisayuki Idekoba, who took on his........