Let's pull all this into an undeniable conclusion: AI is based on massively subsidizing users' costs.

AI is based on massively subsidizing users’ costs. Once those subsidies end, what’s left are costs, not profits. Play that any way you like, but massive subsidies are not sustainable, though they generate a temporary illusion of viability that can be exploited by those selling a fantasy of future profitability to credulous investors and enterprises.

Left unsaid is a lot of money is being gambled on the illusion that subsidies are sustainable. They’re not. Enterprises don’t have profits, they have costs.

  • wulrus
    7·
    1 day ago

    An important point is missing, and the headline is misleading: The flagship models are unaffordable.

    More energy efficient models with (even) less accurate results are a fraction of wage costs. So they would be very affordable to give an existing worker an extra tool. Just no reason for widespread use as long as the “subsidised” ones are available well under cost.

    Whether this extra tool does more harm or more good is a different question; due to the hype of using it everywhere for everything, the former is often true.

    I’m sure that, in theory, are careful and considerate use can be helpful. For example, as a coding agent, when I give it a simple task like I would a junior dev, and I’d check everything anyway. Things like adding a field to a form and applying it to UI, middleware, database, automated tests first etc.