A tech founder with 17 years of experience building AI systems before the term was mainstream is sounding an alarm. Anupam Kulkarni, founder of Refuel, argues that the current AI race prioritizes speed over safety, with companies allowing privacy and ethical standards to erode under pressure to grow.
"The guardrails we put in today will just be temporary bandaging," Kulkarni said in a recent interview. He predicted the rise of generative AI as early as 2016, giving his critique added weight.
Kulkarni is not anti-AI. He describes himself as someone who has been inside the industry, watching it evolve. His concern is that the drive to be first has led firms to cut corners on ethics and data protection.
"The pressure to grow fastest has made companies okay with letting privacy standards and ethical guardrails slip," he explained. His warning is aimed at both developers and users: today's safeguards may not hold as the technology accelerates.