All language subtitles for BBC.Secrets.of.Silicon.Valley.1of2.The.Disruptors.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.[www.EramDownload.com]

So this is it, Silicon Valley.

There's Google just down here.

Tesla, Apple's headquarters,
Facebook.

And over there in the distance
you've got San Francisco.

Airbnb, Uber, Twitter,
all based over there.

It's absolutely unbelievable.

The tech gods here are selling us
all a brighter future.

We are one global community.

With the technology in our pockets,
we can reclaim our cities.

We don't want to be part of the
problem.

We are and will continue to be
part of the solution.

But Silicon Valley's promise to
build a better world

relies on tearing up
the world as it is.

They call it disruption.

My name is Jamie Bartlett.

I'm a tech writer.

I want to discover
what the reality is

behind Silicon Valley's
utopian vision.

Across the world, some communities
are fighting back

against Silicon Valley's disruption.

But what are the consequences
for the rest of us?

If the world really does end,

there's not going to be a lot of
places to run.

VOICEOVER: This former Facebook
insider fears for the future.

Within 30 years, half of humanity
won't have a job.

And it could get ugly.
There could be a revolution.

That's why I'm here.

This is the story of the disruptors
of Silicon Valley

and whether their promise
to build a better world

could end up destroying everything.

The tech gods are promising
us a sunny utopia.

But could the forces they're
unleashing

actually herald
a much darker future?

In the postapocalypse,

the 5.56mm round will be
the currency

of the new America. I guarantee you.

It's not at all what I expected.

Up close, Silicon Valley looks
so normal.

Even a touch boring.

What is it that makes this place

such a force for change
in all our lives?

That's it.

Wow.

So this place here...

..is Rainbow Mansion.

It's an intentional community

of people working to optimise
the galaxy.

So it seems like a pretty good place
to start.

The mansion is home to a bunch of
global nomads

who've come to Silicon Valley to
pursue their dreams.

Jeremy? Hey.

I'm Jamie. Welcome to Rainbow.

VOICEOVER: Jeremy Swerdlow is a
virtual reality hardware designer

and my guide.

So could you show me a little
bit around?

Yeah. There are people working on
stuff all over this house.

Technology has been democratised in
a way that it never has been before.

People just need a laptop,

you can start an entire company
just on a laptop.

Let me take you into the garage.

Or the lab. The lab?

You can't have a garage in
Silicon Valley,

it's got to be a lab.

So the rule here is if your car
isn't broken, it can't be in here.

This is, this is for building,
this is for start-ups.

This is for hardware and making
prototypes and building stuff.

Garages play a crucial role
in the mythology Silicon Valley

weaves around itself.

Everyone remembers how

Hewlett-Packard began in this one.

Apple started in this one.

And Google's early days were here.

What is it that you're doing? So I'm
working out how to do CO2 conversion

using ultraviolet energy from
the sun.

You can reverse climate change,
you can terraform Mars...

Reverse climate change!

Yeah.

Chemically, it's totally possible.

This is called the hyper loop.

Hyper loop is a new type of
transportation system.

You shoot at very high speed
inside a tube

and you can connect cities
in a very short amount of time.

But you must believe that technology
like this is,

in the end,
it's going to help people,

it's going to help the world?
Yeah, of course. Yeah.

We are explorers, we are pushing
boundaries, discovering new worlds.

Every Sunday night,
the mansion hosts expert speakers.

People come from all over
Silicon Valley to share ideas.

You can't move without
falling over a plan

to solve one of the
world's pressing problems.

Our hamburger, the impossible
burger, made from plants,

uses a small fraction of the land,

the water, and the greenhouse
gas emissions

that a traditional burger would use.

We're looking to change the whole
food system in the US.

And the world.

Among this slightly cultish crowd

I found a man who scaled the heights
of Silicon Valley.

Bill Hunt created five start-ups he
sold for half a billion dollars.

What do you think the attitude here
is to change and to changing things,

changing how industries work,
changing how society works?

There's a lot of that.

There's a lot of focus on
disruption.

VOICEOVER: Here it is.
The most potent idea

at the heart of
Silicon Valley's ideology.

Disruption.

There is a mind-set here that's very
focused on disruption.

What can you do such that you're not
just talking about

how we can make money,

but how can we do things
in a new way, in a better way,

that makes the world better,
both financially and socially?

It's thinking about, like, how do we
get rid of this previous industry,

this previous architecture,
this previous system

and find a new way to do it,
a way that's better?

The quantum properties of different
matter can be in a superposition,

meaning that they are...

This place is kind of

what the dream of Silicon Valley
is, I suppose.

The... The idea that just armed with
a bit of technology

and a thought about how to change
the world,

you can actually make it happen.

You can completely transform the
way things are done.

And that you can use technology in a
way that will radically improve

the lives of millions of people.

And I think they really all believed
in that as well.

The same fervour can be heard
from the tech gods too.

In Silicon Valley, it's got a really
positive association.

To be disruptive means you're
changing the world.

It all sounds so hopeful.

But behind Silicon Valley's
ideals of disruption

is a more traditional
business reality.

Cold, hard cash.

Start-ups are drawn to
Silicon Valley

because of another vast industry -

venture capital.

Financiers who gamble billions
of dollars on young companies

in the hope of finding
another Facebook or Google.

But investment has a consequence.

The founders of the two most
valuable start-ups here,

Airbnb and Uber,

have attracted billions of dollars
of venture capital.

Even though Airbnb has only just
begun to turn a profit

and Uber has been
losing billions.

Maybe more than profit,

venture capitalists want to see
the potential for profit.

And that creates a huge pressure on
these companies

to show that they're always growing.

Increasing the number of customers
as quickly as possible -

"killing it", as they say here -
is the start-up mantra.

But what does it mean
for Silicon Valley's mission

to build a better world?

San Francisco.

Home of tech's newest disruptors,

Uber and Airbnb.

It is a city of extremes.

Private buses take tech workers to
Silicon Valley.

Not far away,

food queues and the very different
lives of those left behind.

I'm here to meet the tech company
that has raised more money than

any other, more than $16 billion.

Uber's not even a taxi company
at all, really.

It's a sort of revolutionary
new type of transportation network.

There's this fundamental need to
make transportation better,

to make getting around cities
better.

You're talking about literally
taking congestion off the road,

you're talking about taking
pollution out of the air.

Founder Travis Kalanick's utopian
vision sounds persuasive.

But scandals over sexism and
bullying finished him off as CEO.

There he is.

Just eight years old,

the company operates in more than
450 cities across 76 countries.

So what's the truth about the kind
of world Uber is building?

I'm meeting Uber's head of
transportation policy.

Welcome. Wow, it's huge!

What is the aesthetic?

Open. I think. Open-plan.

Food.

So tell me a bit about

what the kind of vision of Uber is.

Yeah. I mean, the vision is
getting away from everybody needing

to drive their own car
everywhere they go.

Right, if you look at
a place like the US,

where the overwhelming majority of
travel is done by people driving

their own car, and that has lots of
consequences.

Not just in terms of the number of
vehicles people need to own,

but how cities are designed and
laid out.

Everything from the amount
of parking that we have,

to the amount of fatalities on
the road, to environmental impact.

VOICEOVER: There it is.

A pure expression
of Silicon Valley utopianism.

Is this a profit-making company,
or is it a social mission, then?

What is this?
That's what's nice about it.

I think by driving the business
towards supporting people

into shared cars... Right, there's a
profit-making incentive there,

obviously we're here to make money
as a private business.

But as you start to get into
different places

and you change how
people use vehicles,

then you have all these other
effects that you start to open up.

In Silicon Valley,
there is no contradiction

between chasing a healthy profit

and claiming to be working
for the good of humanity.

But disruption means what it says.

Around the world, traditional taxi
drivers have protested

about Uber undercutting
their prices.

It's classic Silicon Valley
disruption -

destroying old industries

by providing a popular,
cheap alternative.

But the social cost of this
disruption goes much further.

India.

Home to more than a billion people
and Uber's top target

for global growth.

I'm in Hyderabad to see the
human consequences

of the disruption
cooked up in San Francisco.

Uber is promising a new kind of
flexible job,

empowering its drivers.

But the reality has been far
less liberating.

Narasimha and Mahendar
were attracted by Uber's pitch.

With no profits and under huge
pressure

to grow against a strong
local rival,

Uber ran adverts on
billboards and in the press,

promising drivers up
to £1,100 a month,

around four times what these drivers
had been earning.

Car ownership is low in India,

especially among those likely to
drive for Uber.

So the company helps drivers borrow
money to buy new cars.

Narasimha borrowed around £12,500
to buy a Tata Indigo.

Mahendar borrowed around £8,000 to
buy a Tata Indica.

As the number of Uber drivers rose,

the number of customers did not
keep up,

so earnings fell.

With a ready supply of drivers,
the company cut incentives too.

I'm meeting one family whose lives
have been utterly changed

after Uber's promise
turned to a nightmare.

Mohammed Zaheer worked
as a taxi driver.

When Uber opened up,
he couldn't wait to join.

Was he excited by this opportunity?

Mohammed borrowed around £8,500
to buy a Tata Indicar.

Soon his earnings fell,
like many other drivers.

Were you under pressure from,

from people who lent you money?

In 2015, Mohammed joined other
Uber drivers on strike,

angry over falling earnings.

Noorjahan remembers the last time

she spoke to her husband
on the phone.

A few hours later,
Mohammed was found dead.

Mohammed had hanged himself.

His body was taken
to the Uber offices.

The company did not respond.

I mean, after everything
that's happened...

..what do you now think
of Uber as a company?

Two other Uber drivers have killed
themselves in Hyderabad.

A former Uber executive has
agreed to talk to me anonymously.

Do you think you could have been,
or should have been, more...

..open with the drivers about how
their salaries or their incentives

might change in the future?

I could have been. I would say, yes.

Obviously, yes. Drivers were misled.

They're totally misled.

That is actually causing all the
pain for a lot of people.

The mantra of Silicon Valley is that
disruption is always good.

And through smartphones
and digital technology,

we can create more efficient,
more convenient, faster services.

And everyone wins from that.

But behind that beautifully
designed app,

or that slick platform,

there's a quite brutal form
of capitalism unfolding,

and it's leaving some of the poorest
people in society behind.

In a statement, Uber said their
heart goes out to Noorjahan

and her family. Uber supported the
authorities' investigation

of this case and will continue to do
so if requested.

Uber said drivers are at the heart
of what they do

and they're committed
to improving their experience.

In India, Uber is listening to them
and acting on what they learn.

Back in Silicon Valley,

I'm realising how much energy the
tech titans devote to one thing...

..presenting themselves as the
heroes of the people,

taking on all kinds of vested
interests.

One of the most remarkable branding
tricks of the 21st century

has been the way that Silicon Valley
has managed to persuade us

that they're not
like other companies.

I mean, when you think about banks
or big pharma, oil,

you imagine them as being driven
only by profit.

And yet Silicon Valley, we imagine,
is different.

They are puffed up with
social purpose to improve the world,

that they're the good guys.

Dear stranger,

when I booked this trip,
my friend said I was crazy...

The founders of Airbnb, for example,

are connecting the world,

not simply allowing people to
advertise holiday lets.

I just wanted to thank you for
sharing your world with me.

Airbnb, belong anywhere.

This is Airbnb's global headquarters
in San Francisco.

I wonder whether I'll get
another dose

of Silicon Valley utopianism here.

We're on our way.

Chris, I'm Jamie.

How are you doing? Nice to meet you.

VOICEOVER: Chris Lehane was once
called the master of disaster.

As Bill Clinton's spin doctor, he
managed the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Chris is now Airbnb's
head of global policy.

Like all the tech gods of
Silicon Valley,

the founders of Airbnb have
their own exulted creation myth.

Two of the three founders were
living in an apartment

on Rausch Street in San Francisco.

There was actually an art conference
that was coming to the city,

so they came up with this idea

that they advertised as air bed
and breakfast on a lister

and, after that weekend,

a light bulb went over their head,
which is,

maybe there is a business here.

So, hang on, is this a model of
their room?

This is a model of one of the rooms

that would have been in
the original listing,

and there's actually something
called, up on the fourth floor,

which I think is around the corner
over here, called the founders' den,

where they actually did their
meetings and came up with the idea.

Today, Airbnb is a global giant,
valued at around $31 billion,

but it doesn't see itself as
big business.

We do like to think of ourselves as
a different type of company.

The founders' initial idea was
make money off of what is typically

your greatest expense,
which is your housing,

to be able to stay in your housing,
and that still remains true today.

You know, over half the people who
are on the platform

are low to moderate income people,
regular people.

They use it to cover basic expenses,
including the cost of their housing.

Airbnb believes its online
marketplace is empowering people.

Our founders, they came up with
a real vision here,

and the vision was to be able to use
the platform

to connect people to people.

We like to say, we are of the
people, by the people,

for the people, but really they use
the platform so that people can

spend time with one another.

You think about what's going on in
the world today,

and people are talking about
building walls,

closing doors, putting up barriers.

A real question of whether we are
going to have an open society

or a closed society, and this
is a place

that is really focused
on using technology

to help create an open society.

Airbnb claims to be on the side of
the little people,

and the only losers from
their disruption

are traditional hotel owners.

But that's not how it feels in
Barcelona,

where Airbnb has run
into a spot of bother.

These people have rented an
apartment through the website.

They are not tourists but locals,
staging a protest against Airbnb.

They are angry rents
in the city are going up

as landlords cater
more and more to tourists.

They are increasing the prices of
the normal rents in Barcelona.

The local government
is trying to control

the growth of tourist
accommodation in the city.

All short-term rental properties
must be licensed.

This flat isn't.

The group prepare a statement they
will read from the balcony.

Before long, the agent managing
the property arrives.

It turns out the agent is managing
13 properties in Barcelona,

all advertised on Airbnb.

It's not just Barcelona that has
seen protests like this.

Residents of other cities around the
world have also raised fears Airbnb

is driving up rents and pushing
locals out.

Airbnb has now banned this
property agent from the platform

for breaking their rules.

These were local protesters that
were in the streets,

unhappy with the way Airbnb
was working with the authority,

and the effects that was having
in Barcelona.

It wasn't large corporations. It was
ordinary citizens in the city.

But that makes the point.

There isn't a regulatory structure
in Barcelona.

The government, up until recently,

has resisted actually getting
involved, sitting down like we're

sitting down right now,

and actually coming up with a
regulatory structure that can work.

In a number of other cities,
people have sat down

and we've figured it out,
and it's really working well.

So, at the end of the day,

to address something that is
a new thing that has come along,

you actually have to have both sides
sit down and figure it out

and work it through.

It's a classic argument
from the disruptors.

Regulators, governments, elected
politicians,

they all have to catch up,

change their policies to take
account of the new reality.

In fact, Silicon Valley seems
to have a pretty dim view

of governments in general.

That is most evident when
it comes to tax.

David. Hey. Wonderful to meet you.

How are you doing? Doing well.

I'm here to see Larry.

Yeah, we're going to take you right
over there.

You can get an idea of
Silicon Valley's attitude to tax

by looking at how the companies
behave in their own back yard.

Larry. Jamie, how are you doing?

Glad to see you.
What a beautiful office.

Glad you're here.

Larry Stone is the assessor for
Santa Clara County,

a friend of presidents
and would-be presidents.

Within a five-mile radius
of where we're standing...

..almost all the major corporations
in Silicon Valley -

Google, Apple,
Facebook's about five miles away.

Companies here pay local property
tax at a rate of 1%

of the value of all
their buildings and equipment.

It's the job of Larry and his team

to work out the value of this
property.

I'm interested in whether those
tech firms tend to disagree

with what you're saying
they owe in tax.

Many of them do, yes.

I mean, we have about $70 billion

of what we call value at risk.

Sorry, $70 billion?

Of assessed value at risk.

What, that's being appealed or
disputed by those companies?

Correct. Correct.

And about 80% of that are major
corporations -

Apple, Google.

Larry wants to show me the subject

of one of his biggest battles
over tax.

Apple.

When completed, their new
headquarters

will be the most impressive in
Silicon Valley.

Quite the place, huh?

But why? Isn't this just a public
street?

Why are they so secretive?

That's the mind-set,

the culture of the company
is secrecy.

And always has been.

VOICEOVER: The constant hum of mild
paranoia

is never far away in
Silicon Valley.

But we can...

These folks are from the BBC.

No, he's filming me, I think.

OK.

Yeah. Well, we're just standing
in the street.

With a mile-long circumference,

Apple Park will be
a modern-day Colosseum.

Its centre will be a park for
Apple staff.

It's expected to cost more than
$5 billion.

Look at this, the scale of it.

Yeah. It's for show as well.

It's like sort of...

It's like emperors building a new
temple to themselves, you know.

It's sort of vanity.

It's unbelievable.
It's a vanity project.

If Steve Jobs was here right now,
he would love to hear you say that.

Steve, it's working!

THEY LAUGH

Last year, Apple paid nearly
$34 million in local property tax,

the second largest amount in
Santa Clara County.

But it is disputing the largest
amount of value,

covering 2010 to 2015.

We have $6.8 billion worth of
assessment appeals.

So you said it's worth
£6.8 billion.

Yeah. They say it's worth
57 million.

OK. That's...
So they're essentially...

That's a big...
That's a pretty big...

They are disputing
99% of their value.

How do you...?
How can it be possible that you say,

this stuff you own is worth nearly
$7 billion, and they say,

no, it's only worth 50 million?

How is that possible? Well, because
that's what they file.

Now, obviously,
it's not worth $57 million.

So how are they coming up with
this number?

Pulling it out of some part of
their anatomy,

but I don't know if it's the top of
their head or is it something else.

If Apple's appeal succeeds in full,

$68 million of tax would be slashed
to just over $0.5 million.

Apple isn't the only tech titan
filing local property tax appeals.

The company has funded over
$70 million of local improvements.

VOICEOVER: But I wondered what Larry
thought all this means for society.

After all, this local tax
pays for schools and other services.

In the '50s, '60s and '70s,
Detroit was the envy of the world.

Today, Detroit is in bankruptcy.

We could go the same way if we don't
solve our public education

and if we don't resolve
our commitment to the community

as a people,
as citizens and corporations.

Around the world, tech giants have
been accused

of aggressively minimising
their tax bills.

The EU is demanding Apple pay up
to £11 billion of tax

it says is owed to Ireland.

But how they deal locally with
these issues,

how they deal locally with
their local taxman,

says something about
the culture of these places,

the general approach of always
trying to minimise the tax they pay

or trying to work around
governments.

It makes a lot more sense

when you come here and you see how
a company like Apple behaves

in its own back yard.

Of course, there's nothing new about
technological disruption.

Steam power, electricity,

production lines destroyed
the industries that existed

before them and forced
governments to change.

The world survived, life got better.

The question now is whether the
Silicon Valley revolution

is going to be different.

The big secret in Silicon Valley is
that the next wave of disruption

is not going to be like the last,

because it could tear apart
the way capitalism works.

And, as a result, the way we live
our lives

could be utterly transformed.

Early morning on the edge of
Orlando, Florida.

I'm heading into the coming world.

I'm on my way to do some disrupting
with a group of people

who want to change an entire
industry,

and they might end up changing
the whole global economy

and how it works.

Our mission begins in the car park
of a home improvement store.

It's not the most obvious place to
start a revolution,

but this one has a certain
do-it-yourself quality.

It's absolutely huge.

I've never been in a truck before.

Oh, wow, this is it.

Yeah.

VOICEOVER: Meet
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher,

a 27-year-old who's raised
$5 million

with his plan to change the future.

Tony Hughes is key to Stefan's plan.

What is this?

And we've got to get this over to...

Which is... How far is that?

All right, so we've got...
How long have we got in the truck?

Well, then, let's do it. All aboard.

All right.

Let's go.

More than three million trucks carry
freight on America's highways.

This truck isn't like the others.

Tony, is the system good?

Car check, is the system good?

OK. Rosebud on, Rosebud on.

So you're not touching the wheel.
I can see the other wheel's moving.

My God!

It's quite scary.

It's just driving itself, man.

Stefan and his team have made
this truck drive itself

by adding a computer

that controls the pedals and
steering wheel.

They're hoping, by adapting the huge
existing truck fleet,

they can beat bigger rival companies
racing to build expensive

self-driving trucks from scratch.

You see, every time it veers
a little bit, my heart goes.

I'm thinking, "Oh, God, it's lost
control."

And then it kind of comes back
in again.

Like, your heart beats just a little
bit quicker,

because you're thinking,

"Oh, my God, we've got suddenly this
huge vehicle that we're all in is

"being controlled not by the driver
but by the computer."

VOICEOVER: I can't help wondering.

Trucking is one of the best-paid
jobs

open to people without a degree,
but for how long?

Among America's 3.5 million truck
drivers, Tony is a rarity.

What do they say when you tell them
what you're doing?

They call me a traitor because
they say,

"You're taking our jobs
away from us."

They call you a traitor? Yeah.

How does that make you feel?

As long as I'm satisfied with
the job that I'm doing out here

and making lives better for
other drivers,

they can say whatever they want.

And this will make a difference
in drivers' lives.

Stefan's vision of self-driving
trucks still requires drivers.

They'd be needed to remotely pilot
the trucks through busy depots or

congested cities,
on and off the motorway.

How does it compare now,
do you think,

to if Tony is driving
without the...?

Well, the system still
isn't as good as Tony.

The goal is that it will be better

than an above average
or good driver

in the next couple of months.
Next couple of months!

That's what we think. That's the
speed at which it's improving.

Because we're focusing on this
particular domain.

It's way easier, it's a way simpler
to drive autonomously on the highway

than to drive autonomously
in a neighbourhood.

There are way fewer variables
that happen.

There's no shortage of ambition
in this cab.

Our plan is to start to take people
out of the vehicle on limited routes

by the end of the year.
By the end of the year. Yeah.

But there are some teething
problems.

We've got a team of engineers
that are kind of driving with us,

so we've stopped off in a lay-by,
they've jumped out,

they're checking the pedals, making
sure everything is working.

That's exactly what
Silicon Valley's about.

Once you are out there doing it
and you're dealing with real-life

problems, things going slightly
wrong and fixing them up...

..you can then demonstrate
to the world

that we have made this thing work.

We're not going to wait around for
all the regulations.

And then, almost

by virtue of demonstrating
its power,

it forces the world
to change around it.

And I think that's what happens

when you take this kind of
disruption philosophy,

this idea of Silicon Valley,
getting out there,

changing things and then making
the world catch up with them.

That's why they've conquered
the world.

We have arrived. We've made a
delivery in an autonomous vehicle.

Rosebud drove the truck for more
than 100 miles today.

Spending time with Stefan is a
chance to find out if Silicon Valley

worries about the possible
downsides of automation.

What if it just becomes so
efficient,

that we don't need drivers
any more at all?

Yeah. That's a thing that could
happen,

but we'll definitely find other
things to do for work.

In the 1920s, Keynes thought that by
now we'd work a four-hour work week.

We found a lot of other things
to do.

Social media managers,
not a job in the 1920s.

I think that we will inevitably find
more things

that we need to do as jobs.

I just, I can't believe how
optimistic you are.

Yeah. I mean, it's great, obviously,
but does a little bit of you think,

"Well, what if, what if there aren't
jobs for people?

"What if this time's different
and we can't create the jobs?"

You can see the possibility of
negative outcomes from AI,

like it would be foolish to say that
there was no possibility

that it could go badly.

But look at what we, as a species,
have overcome.

You know, whether it's the
black plague, whether it's slavery,

Cold War with the threat of
dead-hand nuclear orders, I mean,

we've come by so far.

But history may be no guide to
the consequences

of the next wave of disruption.

What's different about this
industrial revolution

is that Silicon Valley's
using data and software

so machines can learn how to do
things better than humans.

So how far is this going to go?

I'm meeting a pioneer
of another technology

that will change capitalism
as we know it -

artificial intelligence.

What is this? One Wheel.

Well named, huh?

In the world Jeremy Howard
is building,

it won't just be truck drivers or
manual workers

who stand to be replaced.

Everyone's job will be precarious.

You've got to have a go. If you lean
forwards, there we go.

If you lean forwards it goes
forwards...

Oh, yeah. And lean backwards to go
backwards.

And then take your front foot off
to stop.

How are you so good at this?

How do I stop? Yeah, just lean back
and then front foot off.

Yeah.

That was awesome!

Guess where we get started.

Go through to the garage.

There's a clue here to how Jeremy is
developing artificial intelligence,

machines that can learn like we can.

Why do I have Chinese books?

Well, not because I wanted to
learn Chinese,

but because I wanted to learn how
the mind works,

and the best way to learn how the
mind works was to try and learn

something difficult. Did you learn
Chinese to learn how the mind works?

Right, which I then used that in
order to figure out how to implement

that in machine learning.

Artificial intelligence is at the
heart of the start-up Jeremy

founded to help combat the shortage
of doctors and radiologists

in the developing world.

It turns out that figuring
out what's wrong with you

and how to make you better
is just a data problem.

So I was like, all right,
I know how to do data problems.

I don't know anything about
medicine, but I know data problems.

Jeremy uses deep learning software

to diagnose cancer from
medical images.

The software learns from examples to
identify patterns, like we do.

It spots problems by inferring
from what it has learned,

becoming ever more accurate.

The software that I built takes
about 0.02 seconds

to look at a CT scan.

So it can look at a million...

A human takes, to look at it
properly?

10-15 minutes.

So we can look at a million CT scans
like that, and now,

and because we're using these neural
networks, deep learning, to do it,

it can literally develop an
intuition,

the same kind of intuition that
a radiologist has.

Within two months, we had something
that beat

the world's best radiologist
to diagnose lung cancer.

Beat the world's best? Yeah, beat
a panel of the world's best.

VOICEOVER: Here, the march of the
machines feels unstoppable.

So this is going to get bigger,
isn't it?

Because deep learning, once it's
out and once it's doing this,

it's not going to stop at
medical staff?

I feel very similarly to how I felt
in the late '80s when I saw

the internet for the first time,
and I started looking into it,

and I started telling people,

"I think the internet's going to be
used for all things."

When I look at deep learning,
I see that...tenfold.

Jeremy is using technology to make
his own work more efficient.

It turned out that
at 0.8 miles per hour,

I could study for twice as long,

have half the errors and be twice
as fast than no treadmill.

The next wave of technology could
make work more efficient,

by removing us humans altogether.

People aren't scared enough,
you know?

Far too many people are
sounding like, smart people,

are sounding like climate change
denialists.

They're saying, "Don't worry about
it, there'll always be more jobs."

And it's founded on this purely
historical thing of like,

"Oh, there's been
a revolution before.

"It was called
the Industrial Revolution,

"and after it there was still
enough jobs.

"Therefore, this new,
totally different,

"totally unrelated revolution
will also have enough jobs."

It's a ludicrously short-sighted
and meaningless argument,

which incredibly smart people
are making.

The totally utopian and dystopian
futures are like very clearly

in front of us. And very clearly we
could head down to either.

Honestly, the status quo -

do nothing and we end up there -
will definitely be a dystopia,

which is a tiny class of society
owns all of the capital

and all of the data and everybody
else has no economic value,

is despised by the class that has
things because they're worthless,

and massive social unrest.

It's the first time, I think...

..I've felt party to this secret,

that other people here seem to
know and seem to talk about,

whisper about,

but they sort of cover it up and
don't really want to say what it's

going to be. He was very, very plain
about what's happening.

This technology's exponentially
improving,

it's going to change everything
and we ought to be

pretty afraid about that.

And to actually hear that...

..by someone that knows about
this stuff...

..is pretty revelatory.

I want to know how far those at
the top of Silicon Valley

are really thinking about how
automation

will change all our lives.

Finally, I've arranged to meet one
of the tech gods themselves,

a man who wields huge power here
behind the scenes.

Sam Altman is considered,

I think more than anybody else in
Silicon Valley,

to be able to predict the future.

He's like a kingmaker in
Silicon Valley.

He gets to choose what the big
companies of tomorrow will be.

Having him support your
tech start-up,

is considered to be one of
the greatest badges of honour

that you can get
in Silicon Valley.

Sam runs this place - Y Combinator.

A company that nurtures start-ups
with money and advice.

Better not park
in Sam Altman's place.

Its companies are now valued at
$80 billion,

including its biggest success,
Airbnb.

Hi. Nicole?
I'm Nicole.

Hi, I'm Jamie. Nice to meet you.

How are you doing? Nice to meet you.

Thanks for having us.
So great to be here.

VOICEOVER: Sam's time is carefully
allotted.

I just kind of wanted to go over
the flow,

because Sam only has 35 minutes to
meet with you today.

Is he very busy? Yeah.

So we can walk in and I can
introduce you to everybody,

and then you can interview Sam
on the couch for 35 minutes.

OK.

She's just setting up now.

Yeah?

Welcome to Y Combinator.
Thank you for having us.

Sam, I'm Jamie.
Very nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Sam Altman co-founded his first
business when he was 19.

After dropping out of university,

he sold it for more than
$40 million.

He's now 32.

You're considered, I think,

in Silicon Valley as one of
the people

that sees the future better
than most.

So, what are you seeing?

A friend of mine says the best way
to predict the future

is to invent it.

And that is a thought that has
always stuck with me.

Sam is thinking hard about what
the future could be like

after automation takes away the jobs
of millions of us.

We're going to need to have new
redistribution,

we're going to need to have new
social safety nets.

One thing, one product
that I'm funding

that we're doing at Y Combinator

is to study basic income,

and what happens if you just give
people money to live on.

Because we have this world,
we have huge wealth,

but it's very concentrated.

What happens if you just give people
money and say, you know,

here's enough money to have a house
and eat and to have fun?

Do you think people would find
fulfilment and all the other things,

dignity in work for example,

under a system where there's a
small number of very rich people

and they're being given money to...

..find things to do with their time?

I mean, it sounds pretty terrible,
pretty terrifying to me.

You have a very pessimistic view
of the future.

I hope you're wrong. I believe that
someone, you know,

doing mechanical labour
is not the best fulfilment

of their dreams and aspirations.

But the problem, I think,

or the thing that makes me
pessimistic or nervous,

is that society will have
to change dramatically,

and that's quite worrying.

Look, I believe society will have to
change dramatically.

I think we've been through many of
these before,

and, look, I understand that people
have this spirit of,

"I'm going to hang onto
the past at all costs,

"I hate progress and I hate change."

But it's not that... And I hear that
from you, I get it.

It's not that.
It's not hating progress.

What if the progress
that you're, not just you,

but the community here's creating,
is not what other people want?

There are 40 million people in
the US that live in poverty.

If technology can eliminate
human suffering...

..we should do that. If technology
can generate more wealth

and we can figure out how
to distribute that better,

we should do that.

I think it's an important job
for journalists

to try to ask about the negative
possibilities of this stuff.

I think if you continue this thrust
of, shouldn't we stop progress,

no-one's going to take you
seriously,

because people want this stuff,
and people don't...

People don't think that we should
still have people in poverty.

People don't think that we should
take away our iPhones

and take away Facebook.

So I think you can add
a really important voice,

but I worry you're going in
the wrong direction with this,

like, anti-progress angle.

Orcas Island, north of Seattle.

The edge of American civilisation.

I'm here to meet one former
Silicon Valley insider

who fears where technological
progress could be taking us.

Whenever I talk to normals, which is
what they call you people,

or normies, OK, I almost feel like
saying,

"Look, I'm from the future,
believe me.

"I just got off a
time machine called

"the flight from San Francisco."

VOICEOVER: Antonio Garcia Martinez

was a product manager at Facebook
before he quit Silicon Valley.

I've seen what the world will
look like in five to ten years.

You may not believe it,
but it's coming.

And it's coming in the form
of a self-driving truck

that's about to run you over.

How worried are you about this?

Oh, horribly, why do you think
I'm here?

Why are we here?

In the ass end of the Northwest?

It's going to destroy the world.

So, this is it?

This is it.

So this is sort of the general area,
this is my utility thing over here,

where I store a bunch of stuff.

That's going to be the future house
site that we just walked through.

By the way, this is the throne room
right here.

Composting bucket toilet for now.

Why did you choose this particular
plot of land?

Because nobody knows about it.

Canada is a swim or a kayak's ride
away if necessary.

Ideal climate, big community,
self-sustaining food production.

And defensibility, in the case of
things fragmenting for a while.

The AR15, the civilian
version of the M4,

the standard issue service weapon
of the US military.

Is it loaded? Well, I don't know.

Jesus.

If things go bad in the
future, what...

Is this going to be what you need?

Of course. In the post-America,

the 5.56 millimetre round will be
the currency of the new America,

I guarantee you.

This is the tipi clearing,

this is a traditional Lakota Sioux
tipi and we're going to

put this up today.

Why is it wobbling so much?

Back it up, back it up, right,
right.

You might think it's silly that I
have AR15s

and a well and solar panels,

but what do you have in the case of
a crisis?

You're just betting that it doesn't
happen, right?

Yeah. And as we used to say at
Goldman Sachs,

hope is a shitty hedge.

You have hope, that's all you have,
you have hope.

Hope is a shitty hedge.

OK, OK, come over towards me.

So you think there are some people
that are kind of in Silicon Valley,

doing this too? Oh, absolutely,
I'm not the only one.

I'm not unique in any way. I wonder
what other people in Silicon Valley

might be doing.
They have their own hideaways,

they buy land in other places
and they've got a bunch of guns

and wells and all the rest of it.

It's kind of like this, maybe a
little less rustic,

a little less hippie,
but very similar.

But, hang on, I mean it sounds
a little bit selfish...

..because what about the rest of us?

Life is short and we all die alone,
I mean, there it is.

Silicon Valley is unleashing
the next wave of disruption,

without knowing for sure whether
the world will be made better

as a result.

What is at stake?

Well, I mean, there's 300 million
guns in this country,

one for every man,
woman and child, right?

And they're mostly in the hands
of those

who are getting economically
displaced.

There could be a violent revolt.

Why are you kind of speaking out
about any of this stuff?

Well, because it's the
only real debt

that I think technologists have.

Not enough of them are
actually speaking out

and actually informing
the general public.

You don't realise, we are in a race
between technology and politics,

and the technologists are winning,
they are way ahead.

They will destroy jobs
and disrupt economies

way before we even react to them.

And what we really should be
thinking is about that.

Preparing a survival plan
IS extreme.

The coming wave of disruption
COULD bring great benefits.

But there's a risk Silicon Valley's
promise to build a better world

could inflict a nightmare future
on millions of us.

Politics, in the end, has to be able
to take control of this technology,

regulate it somehow, slow it down
if that's what people want,

but make sure that the technology
is being built for people,

in a way that people want,
in a way that society wants,

and not just in the interests...

..of the tiny number
of incredibly rich people

from the West Coast of America.

How did Silicon Valley
become so influential?

The Open University has produced an
interactive timeline

exploring the history of this place.

To find out more, visit...

..and follow the links to the
Open University.