Commentary questions AI investment and returns
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A commentary article argues that AI has become the largest economic bet in U.S. history, with trillions of dollars poured into model development, data center construction and investment in AI companies, yet the technology itself has not yet achieved substantial profitability. The author argues that large language models are merely a "pretty good" new computing interface whose adoption costs far exceed the benefits; the article also says that the people driving AI development effectively believe AI development matters more than human survival and prosperity. These are the author's views, and the report provides no verifiable profitability or cost data.
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- Hacker News AIThe Non-Financial Costs of AI
The author argues that AI is the costliest new technology ever created, with WSJ reporting it is the biggest economic bet in US history as a share of GDP, and that beyond financial costs it rapidly exacerbates climate change, economic precarity for the middle class, and institutional instability. They contend LLMs are a genuinely useful new computing interface but that the speed of the buildout denies society time to identify and regulate emergent harms, and that deskilling knowledge work makes workers more replaceable.
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