Oren Etzioni
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Co-founder, Vercept.com. Founder, ai2incubator.com. Founding CEO, AIlen Institute for AI. Founder, TrueMedia.org. Professor Emeritus, UW
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Articles by Oren Etzioni
Etzioni on AI: The colorful and cranky language of the AI era, from slop to slap
Etzioni on AI: The colorful and cranky language of the AI era, from slop to slap We’ve all encountered the phrase AI slop, but what’s an AI slap? A meat proxy? Chatfishing? Or agentsomnia? Following up on my glossary of AI, which demystified AI jargon, Prof. Dan Weld is joining me to shine a light on the nontechnical lingo of the AI era. We also sneak in a few phrases that should exist to capture the AI zeitgeist, circa 2026.
Etzioni on AI: Where I agree with AI ‘doomer’ Max Tegmark, and where I think he’s wrong
Etzioni on AI: Where I agree with AI ‘doomer’ Max Tegmark, and where I think he’s wrong Regular readers of this column may have wondered about the long gap since my Sept. 4 column, “What kids tell chatbots, but not you.” Well, it’s hard to write business-as-usual AI columns during the great AI freakout. I’ve realized that I won’t be able to do justice to this topic in one column, and that life goes on.
Etzioni on AI: What kids tell chatbots, but not you
Etzioni on AI: What kids tell chatbots, but not you Kids are heading back to school across the country with a tool in their pocket that will do their homework, answer the questions they’re too embarrassed to ask an adult, and never tell anyone they asked. MIT Technology Review asked kids aged 10 to 18 what they make of AI. Their answers had me plowing through every survey and interview with kids about AI I could find.
Etzioni on AI: Bill Gates has the right diagnosis but the wrong prescription
When Bill Gates talks, people listen. This week he published a lengthy essay on what AI is going to do to work, and told GeekWire that people inside AI companies who name the downsides get told, “Hey, you’re hurting our PR while we’re trying to raise trillions of dollars.” He’s right about the hard part. The job displacement he describes lands on young workers first, and the safety net is funded by taxes on the very wages that AI erodes.
Etzioni on AI: An Opinionated Glossary of AI
Jargon stinks. What do the terms open weights, RAG, and agent mean exactly? Here’s a plain English, slightly snarky glossary of befuddling AI terminology with references for further reading. AI is a broad name for the technology. Machine learning is the part where a system learns from data instead of following rules somebody wrote, a neural network is the structure that does the learning, and deep learning just means a neural network with a lot of layers.
Etzioni on AI: An Opinionated Glossary of AI
15 hours ago Tenet is post-trained on Moonshot's Kimi K3, which means an OpenAI-backed legal software company has put Chinese open weights underneath privileged client work Harvey has launched Tenet, its first proprietary model for legal work, post-trained on Kimi K3, the open-weight model from Chinese startup …
Etzioni on AI: Become a power user
Your first step toward becoming an AI Power User is to adopt a few hacks, most of which only take a minute to implement. My favorites are below. There's a lot here, so you can pick and choose. Or you can embrace my meta-hack: I told Claude to help me deploy all of them. Let's dig in. My Ten Favorite Hacks Let AI interview you. Write a short prompt, then ask to be interrogated about tradeoffs, edge cases, and scope. The interview will surface requirements you might miss.
Etzioni on AI: Become an AI power user
Your first step toward becoming an AI Power User is to adopt a few hacks, most of which only take a minute to implement. My favorites are below. There’s a lot here, so you can pick and choose. Or you can embrace my meta-hack: I told Claude to help me deploy all of them. Let AI interview you. Write a short prompt, then ask to be interrogated about tradeoffs, edge cases, and scope. The interview will surface requirements you might miss. “I need to redesign our onboarding.
Etzioni on AI: Become an AI power user
LLMs 3 hours ago Cutting RAG inference costs 6x starts with deciding what never reaches the LLM VentureBeat - Vineet Vijay • 3h Most teams building retrieval augmented generation (RAG) systems for high stakes classification make the same architectural bet: Route every ambiguous case straight to the language model and trust the retrieved context to sort it out. This works fine in a demo. It falls apart the moment the system … Business 7 hours ago AI Is Making Workers More Productive.
Etzioni on AI: Become a power user
16 hours ago The water level at Lake Powell, the United States’ second-largest reservoir, has fallen to a record low, heightening concerns about the ongoing crisis in the Colorado River system. The alarming milestone at Lake Powell, reached Saturday, comes about a week after the river’s other major reservoir, …
Etzioni on AI: Claude is marking its text — Caveat Promptor!
Claude models launched on or after Aug. 2 embed an invisible mark in everything they write. It’s woven into the text itself, so it travels when you copy and paste. You didn’t opt in, you can’t see it, and you can’t turn it off. Anthropic confirmed on Tuesday that it’s watermarking Claude’s output and published a support page with the details. The trigger is Article 50 of the EU AI Act, which took effect August 2, along with the Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content.
Etzioni on AI: Murphy's law of AI
Between July 21 and August 6, OpenAI Anthropic , and Meta each disclosed that AI under evaluation had broken into other companies, and the UK's AI Security Institute disclosed that models it was testing had tried. Each AI was told to win a game, and it found an unexpected way to do so. Some people feel blindsided by these attacks, but they shouldn't be. We are simply living what I've long called the “Murphy's Law of AI,” now in the age of cyber-capable AI agents.
Etzioni on AI: Uncle Sam wants a stake in leading AI companies — what could possibly go wrong?
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump agree on almost nothing. But they do agree that the public should own a piece of the AI industry. The Vermont senator and the president disagree on both the structure and stake of public ownership, but the idea is being discussed at the highest levels of government. Even OpenAI and Anthropic back versions of the idea, though Anthropic’s is a tax rather than a stake. Let’s tune in.
Etzioni on AI: Who disagrees with you about AI? Here's what the research shows
Oren Etzioni Attitudes towards AI differ by country, gender, profession, age, and political affiliation. A few of those gaps are startling. This article is chock-full of stats. Read it for the surprises, or glance at the bar graph below for a quick overview. Let's start with geography, the widest split of all. Ask people in China whether they trust AI and, Edelman finds, nearly nine in 10 say yes ; ask Americans and barely a third do.
Etzioni on AI: Does AI bolster or undercut democracy?
America just turned 250. The founders designed self-government for a world of pamphlets and town meetings, and we now run their political architecture on AI. The birthday question is whether AI bolsters democracy or undercuts it. Serious thinkers have lined up on both sides with substantial arguments. Here is my scorecard, distilled from five books and seven articles, and then the question neither side asks: which is growing faster, power over AI or access to it?
Etzioni on AI: Does AI bolster or undercut democracy?
1 hour ago Your iPhone is about to get a lot more transparent about where your data goes. Apple is rolling out a Google Cloud pop-up warning that protect your privacy by letting you know before certain Apple Intelligence features send your prompts off-device, and it’s already live for some users right now. The …
Etzioni on AI: Elon Musk promised humanoid robots, but China delivered
On Tuesday in Shenzhen, the Chinese company UBTech unveiled the U1, a full-sized humanoid robot with silicone skin, blinking lashes, manicured nails, and an AI tuned to read your mood. It comes in male and female versions, and racked up more than 13,000 orders by the end of launch day, with deliveries beginning in September. “It will never betray you, will always be loyal to you, and will love you unconditionally,” promised Michael Tam, the executive running UBTech’s consumer brand.
Etzioni on AI: Elon Musk promised humanoid robots, but China delivered
Meet the soccer-playing humanoid robot that just delivered the game ball at the Brazil v. Norway FIFA World Cup match Before Brazil and Norway retook the pitch at New York/New Jersey Stadium for their Round of 16 match on Saturday, something happened at halftime that …
The missing half of Trump’s AI strategy
China in late June added 10 U.S. companies to its export control list and barred government procurement from nearly 50 American firms, its latest response in the growing technological rivalry between Washington and Beijing. The move came after the Pentagon blacklisted dozens of Chinese companies with alleged ties to China’s military.
AI’s annual physical surfaces one big surprise
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Etzioni on AI: AI’s ‘annual physical’ surfaces one big surprise
Stanford recently released the 2026 AI Index, the field’s annual physical. One finding stopped me cold: the country that leads AI development is not the country that leads AI adoption. I’ll come back to that. First, what is this AI Index? The AI Index is the most rigorous data-driven portrait of where AI stands: a yearly checkup across technical performance, investment, the labor market, the environment, public attitudes, regulation, the US-China race, and more.
Etzioni on AI: What the World Cup tells us about the best roles for humans and machines
Etzioni on AI: What the World Cup tells us about the best roles for humans and machines In soccer, a single blown offside call can decide who advances and who goes home. But what can you do? Referees are only human. Well, the 2026 World Cup has put computer vision and AI on the officiating crew: video review, a sensor inside the ball, semi-automated offside calls, cameras bolted into every rafter. And the tech has already decided a goal.
Etzioni on AI: Backlash against AI-generated text mirrors the anti-GMO movement
Wikipedia’s volunteer editors have recently banned the use of large language models to generate or rewrite articles. Gartner reported that 53% of U.S. consumers distrust AI-powered search results, and 61% want to turn the summaries off. Add the “Made by Humans” badges sprouting on Substack, and a consensus seems to be forming: people are rejecting AI content.
Opinion: SpaceX is no Tesla
Imagine missing the Tesla IPO. I understand the pull to invest in SpaceX (SPCX). But SpaceX at a $1.75 trillion valuation is a different ball game. Tesla went public at a valuation a thousand times smaller. And the Musk premium that powered Tesla’s run wasn’t baked into the IPO price. Investors got it for free. Neither is true at SpaceX. Those two differences aren’t even the most important argument to consider. If you’re still on the fence about buying SPCX: read on.
Etzioni on AI: Ten Commandments for AI Startups
GeekWire chronicles the Pacific Northwest startup scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and VC directory . For my tenth column in the “Etzioni on AI” series, I want to share ten commandments for AI startups, preceded by timeless classics that still apply. They draw on my work with founders at the AI2 Incubator, Madrona, and my own experience as an AI founder from Netbot (1996) to Vercept (2024).
Etzioni on AI: Wall Street is quietly betting on AI to beat inflation
How can the U.S. bond market, where the world’s smartest money lives, reconcile $36 trillion in national debt with less than 2.5% expected annual inflation over the next decade? The answer may consist of two letters: A and I. Four forces are pushing inflation up: • The debt keeps growing as a fraction of GDP and neither political party has a credible plan to contain it. • The AI buildout is consuming gigawatts, transformers, and copper faster than the grid can supply them.
Etzioni on AI: The Pope can talk, but only we can walk
On May 25, Pope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas — “Magnificent Humanity”— the first encyclical of his papacy, subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” There’s something incongruous about turning to the Catholic Church for moral guidance on AI. This is an ancient institution with a deeply complex history, still reckoning with its own moral missteps and controversies over the centuries. But here we are, reading what the pope has to say about AI.
Etzioni on AI: The Virgin Unicorns
Twelve AI labs have a combined valuation larger than Ford and GM. None of them sell anything. I call them the Virgin Unicorns — valued above a billion dollars, but innocent of product or revenue. OpenAI proved that an AI research lab with the right product could become one of the most valuable companies on earth. A dozen other AI labs are trying to repeat the trick. They have raised more than $29 billion at a combined valuation approaching $130 billion, without shipping anything a customer can buy.
Opinion: Don’t let the OpenAI soap opera hide the precedent
We are watching a courtroom drama in Oakland made for motion pictures. Elon Musk versus Sam Altman, a dramatic firing and reinstatement, the CEO of Microsoft testifying about who was “the adult in the room.” The spectacle is keeping our eyes on the courtroom. Yet the reckoning, when it comes, will have to come from Washington, D.C. The Silicon Valley soap opera is obscuring a question that matters far more than who said what during a chaotic weekend in November 2023.
Opinion: The AI capex conundrum
Generative AI bear Gary Marcus called the AI capex boom the “greatest capital misallocation in history.” Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan reaches the opposite conclusion in his “AI in a Bubble?” research package. Sheridan argues that this is not a hope-and-hype cycle like 1999 but a scale and monetization cycle, with tangible revenue growth and extraordinary market momentum. So, who’s right? Jobs, pensions, and trillions of stock-market dollars, are at stake with implications for all of us.
AI best practices: If at first you don’t succeed, prompt, prompt again
AI best practices: If at first you don’t succeed, prompt, prompt again [Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series by Oren Etzioni about AI usage and best practices. See also “AI Coach or AI Ghostwriter? The Choice Is Yours,” and “How to read with AI.”] A friend asked ChatGPT for input on a professional matter and received a banal, lackluster response.
Opinion: How to read with AI
This is a follow-up to my recent piece “AI Coach or AI Ghostwriter? The Choice Is Yours,” which argued that AI can either sharpen your thinking or replace it. That piece was about writing. This one is about the other side of the coin: reading. The practical question is: how do you use AI to become a more productive reader rather than a lazier one?
Opinion: How to read with AI
6 hours ago What happens when AI can hack everything? For the past several weeks, Anthropic says it secretly possessed a tool potentially capable of commandeering most computer servers in the world. This is a bot that, if unleashed, might be able to hack into banks, exfiltrate state secrets, and fry crucial …
How Congress can build off Trump’s AI framework this tax season
The Trump administration on Friday, March 20, issued a legislative framework for a single national policy on artificial intelligence. The goal is to create uniform federal safety and security guardrails and prevent states from enacting their own AI rules. Getting these measures approved and implemented could take several months, if not years. However, there’s one area that needs attention from Congress right now: helping Americans understand the risks in using AI tools when preparing their taxes.
Opinion: AI coach or AI ghostwriter? The choice is yours
Editor’s note: GeekWire publishes guest opinions to foster informed discussion and highlight a diversity of perspectives on issues shaping the tech and startup community. If you’re interested in submitting a guest column, email us at [email protected]. Submissions are reviewed by our editorial team for relevance and editorial standards. You are using AI to write and so is your boss, your intern, and virtually everyone else. That ship has sailed so arguing whether to board is a waste of breath.
Opinion: AI coach or AI ghostwriter? The choice is yours
6 hours ago Are you using AI to think — or letting it think for you? Vivienne Ming, chief scientist at the Possibility Institute, a metascience research group, and founder of Socos Labs, an AI and education firm, says the tech is splitting people into two groups: a small minority who use it to think better, and …
Opinion: The AI white collar displacement debate — doom or delay?
Oren Etzioni Editor's note: GeekWire publishes guest opinions to foster informed discussion and highlight a diversity of perspectives on issues shaping the tech and startup community. If you're interested in submitting a guest column, email us at tips@geekwire.com . Submissions are reviewed by our editorial team for relevance and editorial standards.
Buckle up: We are headed for an AI collision with China Original
President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on November 24 and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more confabs for the year ahead. But bubbling beneath the surface is a rivalry between the two countries over the most vital technology of the 21st century: artificial intelligence.
U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision
President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Monday, November 24, and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is […] Source READ MORE
U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision
President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Monday, November 24, and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more get-confabs for the year ahead.
US and China are headed for an AI collision
Trump and Xi Are Talking But the U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision President Trumpspokeby phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Monday November 24 and later posted on Truth Social, Our relationship with China is extremely strong! The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more get-confabs for the year ahead.
U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision
Trump and Xi Are Talking — But the U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Monday November 24 and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more get-confabs for the year ahead.
U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision
President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Monday November 24 and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more get-confabs for the year ahead.
U.S., China headed for AI collision
By Oren Etzioni Real Clear Wire President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Nov. 24 and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is extremely strong.” The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more get-confabs for the year ahead.
U.S. and China Are Headed for an AI Collision
President Trump spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Monday November 24 and later posted on Truth Social, “Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” The warm feelings from Washington came on the heels of the two leaders holding a productive meeting in Korea recently and scheduling several more get-confabs for the year ahead. kAmqFE 3F33=:?8 36?62E9 E96 DFC7246 :D 2 C:G2=CJ 36EH66?
Commentary: Gov. Polis veto backs AI innovation in Colorado
As a longtime technologist, I have long admired how Colorado has prioritized being a hub for innovation and technology. The growth of Colorado’s tech sector, which directly accounts for 10 percent of the state’s employment, has helped create 47,440 net new jobs over the past five years, making it the state’s most significant source of job growth.
Opinion: Seattle’s Housing Crisis Demands Bold Solutions. Is CB 121000 One of Them?
On June 17, the Seattle City Council will consider CB 121000, a proposal to ban the use of rent pricing software, technology that helps property owners analyze market conditions and set competitive rental rates. The concern, as voiced by some tenant advocates and councilmembers, is that this software could contribute to higher rents by allowing landlords to align prices. But that mischaracterizes what the technology does and ignores the deeper drivers of our housing crisis.
Seattle’s Housing Crisis Demands Bold Solutions. Is CB 121000 One of Them?
On June 17, the Seattle City Council will consider CB 121000, a proposal to ban the use of rent pricing software, technology that helps property owners analyze market conditions and set competitive rental rates. The concern, as voiced by some tenant advocates and councilmembers, is that this software could contribute to higher rents by allowing landlords to align prices. But that mischaracterizes what the technology does and ignores the deeper drivers of our housing crisis.
The future of media is intelligent and interactive: How AI will change how we consume content
Editor’s note: This is a guest post written by Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, co-founder of Seattle startup Vercept, and founder of deepfake identifier non-profit TrueMedia.org. We are on the cusp of an AI revolution that will transform everything we read, view, and listen to — from academic papers to podcasts and videos — into intelligent, interactive media.
On lame-duck AI bill, Congress shouldn’t push too far Original
Artificial intelligence holds the potential to bring a commercial and economic rebirth for the United States and its allies. Yet the U.S. Congress is getting skittish. Its leaders are reportedly negotiating a lame-duck bill to regulate the AI industry. As officials push and prod on the new technology, they should exercise caution. Go too far, and some of the benefits of AI might simply disappear. That would be a very big loss indeed.
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