Amid all of the crash punditry about the now resolved Open AI “leadership spill” last week, it was disappointing to see an all-too familiar reflexive veneration of a young technologist. It’s more than trying to restore investor confidence: we’re looking for someone to save us.

I thought Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast rose above the fray with one of the more grounded discussions.

Speaking of salvation, here’s a cheeky passage from philosopher John Gray’s new book, The New Leviathans (2023):

Hyper-liberal ideology plays a number of roles. It operates as a rationale for a failing variety of capitalism, and a vehicle through which surplus elites struggle to secure a position of power in society. Insofar as it expresses a coherent system of ideas, it is the anti-Western creed of an antinomian intelligentsia that is ineffably Western. Psychologically, it provides an ersatz faith for those who cannot live without the hope of universal salvation inculcated by Christianity.