Former Apple Inc. executive and co-creator of the iPod, Tony Fadell has expressed his disapproval of Silicon Valley’s entitlement culture and the use of large language models.

What Happened: On Tuesday, Fadell, who is also the founder and former CEO of Nest Labs, took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024.

During the conversation, he underscored the importance of “mission-driven a**holes” in the development of top-tier technology products.

Drawing a distinction between egocentric and mission-driven individuals, Fadell commended the latter for their attention to detail and critique of work, not people.

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The tech mogul also took a swipe at Silicon Valley’s entitlement, humorously commenting on the culture of Googlers and their work habits. He voiced his disapproval of startups hiring Googlers due to their perceived entitlement.

“We said, we will never hire people from the East Coast,” referring to his time at General Magic in the 90s, adding, “because they had to have their driver, or they had to have their company car, and they had to have their corporate lunch and their special executive toilet.”

“And now I wake up today, and Silicon Valley has turned into that s***, and I’m like, get me the f*** out of here, yeah? Entitlement everywhere,” he stated.

Fadell further criticized LLMs, describing them as “know-it-alls.” He argued that while LLMs can be beneficial in certain areas like entertainment, their adoption should not be universal due to their propensity for errors.

“If you look at artificial-specific models, they work really well,” he said, adding, “They don’t hallucinate, but LLMs are trying to be this general thing because we’re trying to make science fiction happen.”

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Why It Matters: Fadell’s critique of LLMs comes at a time when AI technology is increasingly being integrated into various sectors, including healthcare.

Last year, Google’s medical AI chatbot, Med-PaLM 2, began testing at the Mayo Clinic. The chatbot, a variant of the PaLM 2 language model, was specifically tailored for medical institutions.

Despite concerns about AI hallucinations, a 2023 study also suggested that chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT could be more empathetic than actual doctors.

However, not all industry leaders share the same optimism about AI in healthcare.

Earlier this year in September, billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya expressed a more cautious view, acknowledging the potential of AI but also highlighting its limitations.

“It’s not all roses, but some areas if you imagine them, I’ll give you a couple if you want, are just bananas, I think,” he stated at the time.

Photo by @kmeron On Flickr

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