Nick Clegg Doesn’t Want to Talk About Superintelligence
Former Meta exec criticizes AI 'hype on both sides' while backing an AI tutor used by 4M students.
Nick Clegg, the former President of Global Affairs at Meta and UK Deputy Prime Minister, has broken his post-Meta silence by joining the boards of two AI companies, notably education startup Efekta. In a new interview, he forcefully rejects the polarizing hype around AI superintelligence, stating he has a 'real aversion to hype on both sides' propagated by those with something to sell. Clegg argues AI's nature—'both very versatile and very stupid'—makes it difficult to discuss coherently, and he warns the AI race risks further concentrating power in Silicon Valley.
Clegg is directing his focus toward practical, scalable applications, specifically championing Efekta's AI teaching assistant. The platform, a spinout from EF Education First, is currently used by approximately 4 million students, primarily in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Clegg is convinced AI's 'secret sauce' is its ability to provide adaptive, personalized instruction at scale, which he sees as a profound democratizing force for education in regions with chronic teacher shortages. He compares integrating AI into classrooms to past adoptions of whiteboards and calculators, asserting that trying to shut it out is 'senseless' and that its impact will depend on how teachers incorporate it.
- Clegg joined the board of Efekta, an AI education startup whose tutor is used by 4 million students in underserved markets.
- He criticizes both AI 'doomer' and 'booster' narratives as hype, calling AI both 'exceptionally powerful' and 'exceptionally useless.'
- Clegg believes AI can democratize education through personalized learning, addressing teacher shortages in regions like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Why It Matters
Signals a shift in AI discourse toward practical, scalable solutions over theoretical risks, with immediate impact for global education equity.