The profits of AI are in control. They don't need to sell you something when they can leverage and steal it from you. What are all these data centers for. People are about to get bit in the ass like they have never been bit before. It is sneaking up on us like a thief in the night.
Wow! Bill must have gotten a burst of energy or started chia seed oil, another outstanding piece of writing and thinking.
Consumers must be willing and able, the willing has been outstandingly accentuated, and credit is out of control. The debtors can no longer pay for necessities.
We live in a financial technology smoke and mirrors economy. We do not produce anything. There is no incentive to pay adequate wages, we import workers, some 80 million with illegal ancestry. Wages have not gone up, in real terms, since the 70’s.
The oligarchs do not care; they do not produce anything. AI to them is marvelous because it controls the rabble and lowers costs.
But no one, not on Main Street, has any money. Funny money rules and crazy elites.
I agree with Bart below. AI is trying to control our lives but as you write, it's hard to understand how they will recover the BILLIONS of $'s invested. The regular folks are being led by the nose down the proverbial path AND being ripped off by the building of all the data centers (water, electricity) that cause a lot of other problems for regular folks. Barts last sentence below hits the nail on the head!
Wrong. SpaceX has two contracts, one with Anthropic, one with Google, that will pay billions more than that 12.7 billion you sited as the cost...and SpaceX still has Colossus II running Xai.
Anthropic: $1.25 billion a month $40 billion contract
Google: $920 million a month $30 billion contract
Xai subscriptions: $350 million - $2 billion a month
I use Anthropic and Grok. It will come down to those that use it and those that go out of business. AI is incredible. It is doing the work of 4 or 5 people for me.
What are AI & data centres going to provide me … more than I’ve already got? A lot of investors are going to lose a lot of money and that includes mums & dads in 401(k)s and superfunds. After which they’ll expect to be bailed out by government or us non investors. Buy gold and hide it!!
Regarding companies making transitions, Studebaker was one of the few, maybe the only horse-drawn equipment maker in the US to successfully switch to motor powered transportation. They were even one of the first companies to build electric cars then, successfully convert to all ICE vehicles. If your family was of the buy and hold persuasion, buying at the IPO in 1911, you would have lost your shirt in the Depression when the company was forced to reorganize. Alas, even after they returned to success during and after WW2, they eventually failed to innovate and fell to the competion of the Big Three in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Beware of becoming wedded to a theme (meme?)!
Bill another great insight article from an 'old' guy ! well done for even keeping up with all the new jargon .. or tech speak .. the world and its inhabitants are in for a BIG schock like the dinosaurs before them !
The profits of AI are in control. They don't need to sell you something when they can leverage and steal it from you. What are all these data centers for. People are about to get bit in the ass like they have never been bit before. It is sneaking up on us like a thief in the night.
You will "own nothing and be happy", and so the great taking is happening in real time and there is nothing you can do about it.
So, who is really in control of Ai?
It is not the people, and probably not even the state.
Wow! Bill must have gotten a burst of energy or started chia seed oil, another outstanding piece of writing and thinking.
Consumers must be willing and able, the willing has been outstandingly accentuated, and credit is out of control. The debtors can no longer pay for necessities.
We live in a financial technology smoke and mirrors economy. We do not produce anything. There is no incentive to pay adequate wages, we import workers, some 80 million with illegal ancestry. Wages have not gone up, in real terms, since the 70’s.
The oligarchs do not care; they do not produce anything. AI to them is marvelous because it controls the rabble and lowers costs.
But no one, not on Main Street, has any money. Funny money rules and crazy elites.
I agree with Bart below. AI is trying to control our lives but as you write, it's hard to understand how they will recover the BILLIONS of $'s invested. The regular folks are being led by the nose down the proverbial path AND being ripped off by the building of all the data centers (water, electricity) that cause a lot of other problems for regular folks. Barts last sentence below hits the nail on the head!
Jim Marshall
It’s different this time 🙄
Wrong. SpaceX has two contracts, one with Anthropic, one with Google, that will pay billions more than that 12.7 billion you sited as the cost...and SpaceX still has Colossus II running Xai.
Anthropic: $1.25 billion a month $40 billion contract
Google: $920 million a month $30 billion contract
Xai subscriptions: $350 million - $2 billion a month
And you think $12.7 billion is a bad investment?
And You are invested in which ones?
SPCX (IPO)
and a lot of AI companies.
I use Anthropic and Grok. It will come down to those that use it and those that go out of business. AI is incredible. It is doing the work of 4 or 5 people for me.
Good luck!
What are AI & data centres going to provide me … more than I’ve already got? A lot of investors are going to lose a lot of money and that includes mums & dads in 401(k)s and superfunds. After which they’ll expect to be bailed out by government or us non investors. Buy gold and hide it!!
Regarding companies making transitions, Studebaker was one of the few, maybe the only horse-drawn equipment maker in the US to successfully switch to motor powered transportation. They were even one of the first companies to build electric cars then, successfully convert to all ICE vehicles. If your family was of the buy and hold persuasion, buying at the IPO in 1911, you would have lost your shirt in the Depression when the company was forced to reorganize. Alas, even after they returned to success during and after WW2, they eventually failed to innovate and fell to the competion of the Big Three in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Beware of becoming wedded to a theme (meme?)!
They made some wonderful cars though and developed some interesting technology.
The "big three" colluded to drive them out of business. Two is company, three is a crowd, and four is one too many.
All about market share, and profits!
Damn Bill. Excellent essay!
What's a billion? For me, something I will never have and could not possibly have earned, unless we go full-Zimbabwe.
Ms. Rinehart, of extensive but unmentioned wealth, has speculated with a billion USD, which may well make sense in her context.
I, on the other hand, did not even bother asking the bank for a billion to join the fun.
Bill another great insight article from an 'old' guy ! well done for even keeping up with all the new jargon .. or tech speak .. the world and its inhabitants are in for a BIG schock like the dinosaurs before them !