The hype around artificial intelligence has been so great that the valuations of the companies producing AI have gone through the roof. Not necessarily just Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and OpenAI, but all the other startups in their shadows. Even the sensible uses of artificial intelligence are over priced and possess unsustainable valuations. This isn’t an industry that takes market humblings in stride, and will shift their focus to where money can be made. One might point the finger at going back towards cryptocurrencies, but my money is on military and policing—areas that do well in fascist moments.
Artificial Intelligence isn’t going anywhere, mostly because it’s been around for 70+ years, but also because there are so many believers who are so desperate for it to be a thing and not be seen as wrong. AI is a high rollers game in the financialization game that has become mainstream business. Cryptocurrencies is offshore and maybe rising to an Atlantic City status within this administration, but AI is the game for the big players and they have a lot of money to be made as well as lost, and like startups within VC’s portfolios, they will always find some sort of exit, and artificial intelligence will find a new market. Palantir and Doge are the leading edge of what I am talking ab out, but all the other smaller fish in the ecosystem will eventually shift towards a similar business model because it will be the only place they will be able to make the money being demanded by their investors.
Everytime I talk with a fresh round of startup entprepreneurs about how they will do the right thing and they will resist their investors demands to do the wrong thing I am reminded why young white men make such good startup founders. This prediction for the world of AI is why I am tapping out 100% now and not using any of the gen AI bullshit in my business or personal life. It is primarily because of the environment and labor impact, but also that it is expensive and doesn’t work, and this inevitable play in the authoritarian playbook that everyone in tech seems to be celebrating right now. The AI machine is easier to defuse in this moment, as opposed to when it is baked into the federal, state, and local governments and pollice forces, but regardless of how this moment plays out, I can rest assured that I didn’t sell my soul in this moment and stayed solidly on team human.
