when discussing the economy of so-called "AI", two topics come up often:
- circular investments: nvidia promises to invest 1 billion in AI compute, AI company promises to invest 1 billion in nvidia GPUs, both companies have a billion profit in their accounting books
- misallocation of resources: 1 trillion spent on random generators of signal-shaped noise for no results of note so far, when you could have invested 1 trillion on preventing global warming, or protecting Gaza, or healthcare or public parks etc.
I think missing from the discussion is: who exactly is paying for all this? it's clear for a while now that tech companies don't market to people, they market to "investors". "generative AI" is pretty transparently a hype cycle, the goal is to get investors to pump as much money into your company as you can, then when the bubble bursts you fail upwards with a golden parachute. but who are the "investors" that are being courted by all these scams?
I think "AI" is a logical conclusion of wealth concentration. due to the nature of capitalism all wealth generated siphons more and more to smaller and smaller elites who own everything. think of the case of Germany, for example, where two families own as much wealth as the bottom half of the country—and this is one of the countries considered to be *less* unequal. now imagine you are the preppy CEO of a tech startup and you want to get filthy rich and snort coke in the Bahamas to cover the gaping hole where you used to have a soul. which is the more doable strategy: do you court half a country, or do you court two families? both of them have the same cash potential. if you're courting two families, then what do the richest people on Earth care about? certainly not global warming, Gaza etc., the primary motivation of a capital owner is to own even more capital. if you're scamming a capital owner, what do you promise him in return for a slice of his hoard? more gold, of course. FOMO. take a bet, this might be the next Apple stocks; you wouldn't want to miss the next Apple stocks, would you?
therefore the task of a tech company is to create tall tales about new technologies that sound plausibly like they'll bring massive ROI. I mean that sound "plausible" to absolute super rich fucks, not to generic nerds. Elon Musk is the undisputed great master of this dark art, it's the one skill he actually has, but the entire tech sector and its successive hype cycles has optimised for that, because that's where the money is.
consequently, for as long as 0.1% of people own all access to common survival resources, and therefore monopolise decision power of what tasks humanity should be doing and how, it's inevitable that corporations will be a game of jesters trying to catch the king's good graces. when the "AI" bubble bursts it will be replaced by some other scam, unless we replace it by armed insurrection.
