Congratulations everyone, we've reinvented the search engine.
Note, also, that the only big tech that's NOT heavily investing in AI is Apple. That big $500 billion investment that Apple made in AI back in February? It was for "AI and other opportunities." They could invest exactly nothing into AI and still meet that commitment.
I think that we're about to see trillions of dollars of investment go into a product that flops. It's going to be hilarious, except for the fact that lots of people (including myself) are going to lose their job now, and lots more people are going to lose their investments and retirement accounts in the near future. And that is why my money is not in the stock market.
There's an immediate effect, on everyone, that we can both see now _and_ predict for the future: the environmental impacts of the exorbitant amounts of land, energy, and especially water that are needed for the data centers on which "AI" runs.
Those factors alone are enough for me to do my best to avoid any use of LLMs, generatives, etc. (Which is becoming especially difficult, in that my employer has signed on to a Copilot integration agreement.)
Who does AI serve? A basic question you are well raising -- does it elevate people or further endanger them? Plus, the environmental costs are huge; the amount of energy and water consumption by data centers might bring some initial construction jobs, but does AI further exacerbate climate change by sucking up more energy, and for drought prone areas, who gets water first -- people or AI centers?
If the environmental effects of this technology isn't enough (disturbing to me that this one often gets glossed over), I've been talking to different software engineers every week about how they're using AI in their daily roles and how they envision using these tools in the future, and a lot of them have the same answer: That these AI tools, at best, are good at generating boilerplate code but that in no way do they come close to replacing them in their roles, because there are far too many errors, and reviewing that code ends up becoming a job in and of itself.
I also know several people who work in roles that have been described as "most replaceable" by AI, and even their biggest concern isn't that these tools are actually capable of doing their jobs, but that companies are laying people off and not hiring enough people to replace them because they're *banking* on the tools being capable of doing their jobs.
So what's actually happening in a lot of tech jobs, especially lower-level tech jobs, is that one person is being forced to do five people's jobs with shitty AI tools that often make more work for them in some way, even if they "help" in other ways.
I think the question is worth being asked: IS AI cheaper than old fashion labor, in reality? Right now it's being heavily heavily subsidized, but sooner or later capital is going to want returns on the billions invested. GPUs can run $20k a piece, have a maybe 5 year shelf life, and data centers employ hundreds, if not thousands of them. The costs of infastructure, energy, etc. is not reaching the consumer yet, and when it does, I'm not sure who will pay.
The future is unknown, but if I had to guess, AI is just the grandest pump and dump scheme out of Silicon Valley yet, and the folks on top are either going to get out right in time or go the way of Sam Bankman-Fried or Elizabeth Holmes.
Kinda predictable as we look at late stage capitalism as a return to an extractive economy and social system. It’s the ultimate tool for bloodsucking parasites at the very top of the economic ladder. Where we once had tribal chiefs and lords of the manor restricting access to innovation we now have those same parasites celebrating no longer needing the rest of us.
No question in my mind that this will be unsustainable, resulting in, we hope, creative destruction.
“It only has to be good enough to convince the employers in these fields that its lack of quality is more than made up for by its potential to lower labor costs.”
Socialism via democracy in the workplace is the only thing that will enable us to avoid the iceberg. Best way to neuter the corporate coup which has taken place is via HJR-54. MoveToAmend.org
Personally, I put my money where my mouth is and my mouth is saying that AI is a bubble that's about to pop. An internal report by Apple got external and the report says that, basically, AI doesn't think, it just looks at its database for an answer - https://ml-site.cdn-apple.com/papers/the-illusion-of-thinking.pdf and https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2025/06/apple-study-questions-ai-reasoning.html
Congratulations everyone, we've reinvented the search engine.
Note, also, that the only big tech that's NOT heavily investing in AI is Apple. That big $500 billion investment that Apple made in AI back in February? It was for "AI and other opportunities." They could invest exactly nothing into AI and still meet that commitment.
I think that we're about to see trillions of dollars of investment go into a product that flops. It's going to be hilarious, except for the fact that lots of people (including myself) are going to lose their job now, and lots more people are going to lose their investments and retirement accounts in the near future. And that is why my money is not in the stock market.
There's an immediate effect, on everyone, that we can both see now _and_ predict for the future: the environmental impacts of the exorbitant amounts of land, energy, and especially water that are needed for the data centers on which "AI" runs.
Those factors alone are enough for me to do my best to avoid any use of LLMs, generatives, etc. (Which is becoming especially difficult, in that my employer has signed on to a Copilot integration agreement.)
Who does AI serve? A basic question you are well raising -- does it elevate people or further endanger them? Plus, the environmental costs are huge; the amount of energy and water consumption by data centers might bring some initial construction jobs, but does AI further exacerbate climate change by sucking up more energy, and for drought prone areas, who gets water first -- people or AI centers?
If the environmental effects of this technology isn't enough (disturbing to me that this one often gets glossed over), I've been talking to different software engineers every week about how they're using AI in their daily roles and how they envision using these tools in the future, and a lot of them have the same answer: That these AI tools, at best, are good at generating boilerplate code but that in no way do they come close to replacing them in their roles, because there are far too many errors, and reviewing that code ends up becoming a job in and of itself.
I also know several people who work in roles that have been described as "most replaceable" by AI, and even their biggest concern isn't that these tools are actually capable of doing their jobs, but that companies are laying people off and not hiring enough people to replace them because they're *banking* on the tools being capable of doing their jobs.
So what's actually happening in a lot of tech jobs, especially lower-level tech jobs, is that one person is being forced to do five people's jobs with shitty AI tools that often make more work for them in some way, even if they "help" in other ways.
I think the question is worth being asked: IS AI cheaper than old fashion labor, in reality? Right now it's being heavily heavily subsidized, but sooner or later capital is going to want returns on the billions invested. GPUs can run $20k a piece, have a maybe 5 year shelf life, and data centers employ hundreds, if not thousands of them. The costs of infastructure, energy, etc. is not reaching the consumer yet, and when it does, I'm not sure who will pay.
The future is unknown, but if I had to guess, AI is just the grandest pump and dump scheme out of Silicon Valley yet, and the folks on top are either going to get out right in time or go the way of Sam Bankman-Fried or Elizabeth Holmes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIi7viDVc8k
𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘈𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘎𝘐 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩.
Capitalism is, perhaps both fortunately and unfortunately, self-correcting in this way.
Kinda predictable as we look at late stage capitalism as a return to an extractive economy and social system. It’s the ultimate tool for bloodsucking parasites at the very top of the economic ladder. Where we once had tribal chiefs and lords of the manor restricting access to innovation we now have those same parasites celebrating no longer needing the rest of us.
No question in my mind that this will be unsustainable, resulting in, we hope, creative destruction.
Destruction in another form maybe.
“It only has to be good enough to convince the employers in these fields that its lack of quality is more than made up for by its potential to lower labor costs.”
Socialism via democracy in the workplace is the only thing that will enable us to avoid the iceberg. Best way to neuter the corporate coup which has taken place is via HJR-54. MoveToAmend.org