One thing I kinda knew deep down but which I'm only really actively thinking about now watching Gamers Nexus' video on the subject is just how strange the money cycle of the AI boom is, and I'm not talking only about the circular investments.
For my example, think of a market economy as having 2 pots of money: the "consumer" pot (money owned by the average joe or very small scale business), and the corporate pot (money locked up in large companies or the bank accounts of gazillionaires). (I'm aware this is a major oversimplification but please bear with me)
Money flows upwards into the corporate pot in exchange for goods and services, and back down into the consumer pot trough wages. There's also some internal circulation of money within each pot (companies contracting each other for goods and services; people commissioning other people for work or donating for otherwise free works)
The AI boom promises two things:
- "plugging the wages leak" by replacing workers with AI, meaning no more wages, instead you pay another company, keeping the money in the corporate pot
- Redirect the money recirculating within the "consumer" pot to the corporate one by having people pay for chatbot subscriptions as opposed to humans for art, music, documentaries, journalism etc.
But then comes the issue: if money constantly flows upwards with no downward flow, eventually no money is left in the consumer pot, meaning nobody can afford anything, so what are the companies there for anymore if nobody can afford the goods and/or services they provide, and they themselves don't provide any employment? You just end up with an endless corporate ouroboros where money keeps getting recirculated within the upper echelons of the economy with no end goal beyond consolidation.
I know I'm not the first to point this out, I'm not even explaining it all that well, but I hope you see my point.
Anyway, gamersnexus video about the AI-enabled bullshit in the tech space, including outrageous prices and tech feudalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyQwAhppWj8