By abcnews
Publication Date: 2026-06-08 10:30:00
THE AI RACE
June 8, 2026
Four corners
BASEM ISTANBOULI: Thank you for coming today. I really appreciate you all. First, we want to do a headcount to see how many people we have.
GROUP: Count 1, 2, 3…15, 16
STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: It’s Monday morning and most of these hikers would rather start their work week.
GROUP: 49, 50, 51
BASEM ISTANBOULI, FOUNDER, (un)PTO: We have a group of people who have been laid off; The vast majority of them come from the tech and big tech industries.
STEVE CANNANE: For many here, artificial intelligence has put them out of work.
MAIAN TRAN, Hiker: If you don’t know about AI, you won’t get a job in this market.
STEVE CANNANE: This is the AI race: a competition between the world’s most powerful companies to build machines that could outperform us.
ROBOT: What’s not to like?
STEVE CANNANE: The promise is abundance. The goal is domination.
KAREN HAO, AUTHOR, “EMPIRE OF AI”: The biggest risk to me is that these companies become the top…
