The Top Story
AI’s chances at wiping out humanity
The revolution will be televised. Don’t say you weren’t warned. CNN’s Anderson Cooper talks with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about an employee who quit over concerns that AI could wipe out humanity.
My take: If you haven’t already, I think the movie “Don’t Look Up” with Leo Dicaprio and Jennifer Lawrence might bring you to where I am when it comes to existential threats. I rewatched it with the family recently. I think the movie is brilliant in telling a doomsday story of what could happen when we know exactly what is going to happen and when it will happen. With AI at this moment, we don’t know anything more than what journalists have dug up, what the former employees and CEOs of AI companies tell us, what’s in the “Terminator” movie catalog, and a truckload of sci-fi. No wonder there’s some worry. This is the time when the people need to wake up their leaders, who should stand up and start conversations that result in making contingencies (since we know our power grid is vulnerable, for example), offering policy proposals (after doing interim studies) and drafts of the facts as we know them (for town hall discussions). But who’s going to take the lead? In the meantime, I am shopping for generators on Wirecutter.
Check out the trailer on “Don’t Look Up”
Quotable quotes
On leadership from one leader to another
“I told Coach Morris after last Saturday’s game at TU that I’d like to talk to him first thing Tuesday morning. I get to work at 6:30 in the morning. And when I got there, he was standing outside the door waiting for me to unlock it. And he came in and seemed a little anxious. I said, ‘Coach, what’s up?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve been kind of wondering what we’re going to talk about. I thought maybe you might have some things to say about Saturday afternoon.’ I said, ‘That’s not what I want to talk about at all. I called you in because I wanted to encourage you. I hired you for a reason. Hired you because I knew you were our guy, and I have all the confidence in the world. I don’t know if you know this. I’ve told it to other people, that we had (other candidates) when we were hiring you. There were several people that we were going to talk to, but you were first. And after I talked to you, I wasn’t interested in talking to anybody else. I said, we’re done. He’s our guy. And I still believe that today. I just want to encourage you. Remember what got you here. Remember you’re a great coach. Remember you know how to inspire young people. You just do what you know how to do, and the rest of it’s going to take care of itself.’ I said, ‘so you go get them. We’re all behind you.’ And I said, ‘by the way, I’ve told people I’ve already ordered a goalpost. I expect to use it.’ Sure enough, we got to use it.”
– OSU President Jim Hess, answering the first question I asked him during a Tulsa Press Club Page One Luncheon series on Monday: “What did you learn about your coach and this team after Saturday’s win against Oregon, and especially after that first loss to the University of Tulsa?”
Hess made some news on other topics we talked about. Here is the reporting from the event:
Will Tulsa Community College merge with OSU? Leaders eye a ‘more formal relationship.’ By Ginnie Graham of the Tulsa Flyer
OSU president wants formalized tie with TCC to expand Tulsa higher ed. By Randy Krehbiel of the Tulsa World
On the latest from Williams
“Every year, Oklahoma loses hundreds of strong early career professionals to places like Dallas, Houston and Denver. When we ask candidates why they choose these markets, the same two factors come up again and again — access to career opportunity and quality of life. By evolving our early career recruiting approach and situating incoming talent in the economic and cultural heart of our city, we’re hoping to show them that Tulsa can be an equally compelling place to build a life and launch a career.”
– A statement from Williams in response to questions from the Tulsa World’s Kevin Canfield, who reported that the company is planning to add 600 to 800 new employees in Tulsa over the next few years.
On a fatal cover up
“I want to be fair to the city. They didn’t recognize that the air that everyone was breathing in downtown Manhattan was toxic until October of 2001. … They only buried that information for 25 years. … Everyone knew.”
– Jon Stewart during a press conference after NYC Mayor Mamdani unsealed 170,000 9/11 records. About 10,000 people died of health-related causes from the terrorist attack.
On paying influencers
“At a moment of profound distrust in politics, our job is not to preserve decades-old communications norms or protect the gatekeepers who once controlled access to public information.”
– Emilia Rowland, Mamdani’s director of new media and cultural communications, in a story about the New York mayor’s office paying influencers to talk about the mayor. The mayor’s office declined to provide details of City Hall’s social media operation, including the budget of the new media office, a list of the social media influencers used and the total spending by city government on influencer campaigns. She told the New York Times in this unlocked article that working with influencers was a higher priority than interacting with traditional journalists.
On Meta’s boss
“Still dangerous.”
– Commentator and former tech reporter Kara Swisher when asked to describe the Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a few words on the Power Lines podcast.
On not understanding history
“America wasn’t built by immigrants. It was built by Americans.”
– T.W. Shannon, the former Oklahoma speaker of the house who is the Republican nominee for state’s lieutenant governor on the Nov. 3 ballot. He’s the leader of Black Voices for Trump and said this quote during a speech last week at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. The Oklahoman’s Molly Young has this report.
On a Republican offering a strategy
“The rise of the Democratic Socialists of America is a political gift for Republicans … refuse to disavow DSA’s agenda or remain silent, then we Republicans should attack and attack again. Make them squirm as voters turn against them.”
– Karl Rove, a senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, in this unlocked Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Notable numbers
From 81 to 107 days
– The average number of days per year with a heat index above 90 degrees from 1986 to 1995 compared to 2016 to 2025 for Tulsa County, which was one of the county’s spotlighted in this unlocked editorial by the New York Times.
45
– The number of Oklahoma hospitals that are at risk of closing, including 18 that might not survive much longer, according to a new report quoted in a Tulsa World story by Steve Metzer.
$227 million
– The amount of money cleared by the College Sports Commission of name, image and likeness deals in the two-month period ending Aug. 31. That’s nearly doubling the value of all the deals cleared over its first year of existence.
This & That
Oklahoma Watch reporter Andrea Eger breaks down the real-world consequences of an executive order issued by Gov. Kevin Stitt that eliminated new tenure-track positions for regional public universities and community colleges.
If you want to take the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, you might book it. The train system is only funded through the end of next year, according to this story from Graycen Wheeler of KOSU.
Life in pictures
Wildflower Cafe opens up in an old church
My wife had “no notes” (not usually the case) after our visit to enjoy the menu at Wildflower Cafe in its new downtown location in the old First Christian Church building on Boulder Avenue and 10th Street. The cafe is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pictured is what we shared at brunch after a 45-minute wait (they only take reservations for groups of 10 or more): Piggy Crepes, banana bread french toast, hash browns, crispy bacon, cream with some coffee.
Check out the menu. Follow on Instagram.
Thunder bolts of lightning, very very frighting
There is no cavalry. It’s up to us. All together now. jc
P.S. I will also present to the Tulsa Chapter of the American Marketing Association meeting this week. Here are the details:
Indexing (Not Marketing) to the NoLo, Interest Feed, IRL, Shelfie and Local Media Life in the Age of Hobbyamory
How do you communicate with a community when the ways people discover information, form connections and decide what matters are all changing?
Join AMA Tulsa and Jason Collington for a wide-ranging look at the trends reshaping local communities and cultures — and what those changes mean for marketers, communicators and organizational leaders.
Jason will explore the NoLo, interest feeds, IRL experiences, shelfies, local media life and the growing influence of our many interests and hobbies. Together, these shifts offer a possible explanation for how organizations can continue reaching people when so much of the familiar communications playbook is going away.
This isn’t another presentation about chasing algorithms or adding more channels. It’s a conversation about understanding where people are headed, communicating with greater relevance and determining what belongs on the marketer’s to-do list now.
Event Details
Thursday, September 17
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
WeStreet Ice Center
Lunch is provided
The Collington Index is a free weekly news summary written by Jason Collington that explains quickly what’s important and interesting, shared in weekly wraps, popular lists, conversations and cheat sheets. Skim or go deep. A movement toward truth and understanding in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Subscribe for free on Substack to get an email newsletter each Tuesday morning. See the archive at collingtonindex.com.
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