Mark Cuban to Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon and other AI companies: It is a dumb idea to pay …

Mark Cuban has a clear message for major artificial intelligence (AI) companies. The American billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank judge has asked companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Amazon, to stop relying on celebrity endorsements and political spending to improve public perception of AI. Instead, he argued that companies should directly engage with communities, workers and artists who fear the impact of AI on jobs and livelihoods. In a post on the social media platform X, Cuban said AI companies have already “lost the PR battle” and warned that public opposition to AI infrastructure, particularly data centres, is growing due to concerns about wealth concentration and job losses rather than the facilities themselves.Addressing leading AI firms, Cuban said, “Don’t try to pay famous people to endorse what you are doing. That’s dumb.” He also argued that AI companies should invest billions of dollars into local communities and support programmes identified by workers, artists and cities as a “cost of doing business” if they want broader public acceptance.

Read Mark Cuban’s full message for OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon and others on improving public perception of AI

In his X post, Cuban wrote, “It’s time for everyone to realize that the fight against data centers has nothing to do with data centers. They have become a proxy for the hate towards AI and the concentration and accumulation of wealth it’s creating. Until those running the big LLMs understand this and start a community tour, not to explain the benefits of AI, it’s too late for that, but to help towns and cities that may be impacted by job losses (and I’m a believer their will be a net gains in a few years), this battle is only going to get more intense and let me tell you now , no matter how much money you pay to buy politicians and races, you will lose. One thing I have learned is being hated is not good for business. How can they help ? They will tell you. You will need to do what they ask. Billions of dollars is a lot of money across towns and city programs. Across the major LLMs, it’s a cost of doing business. At the same time, I would go to LA and NYC and ask the arts and creative unions what kind of programs would help and protect their artists. DO NOT GO TO THE MUSIC OR FILM COMPANIES. that will make it worse. Don’t try to pay famous people to endorse what you are doing. That’s dumb. Talk to artists and ask them what you can do to provide financial and creative support. Every creative I know is TERRIFIED about what AI will do to their profession. You must meet them face to face and basically do what they say. The big LLMs have lost the PR battle. Why ? Because they all suck at putting people first. They have an SV attitude that makes them all think they are John Galt saving the world Given the number of data centers and power that is needed, today and going forward , If you don’t kiss the as*es of the people that go to work every day, and are just trying to pay their bills, you will fall far far short of the capacity you need to make your business work.”