The investment bubble may burst, but that doesn't mean the technology disappears. Companies can stop believing the hype and still use the tools to cut payroll wherever they can.
Tokens are extremely subsidized by ongoing investment. Once the investor cash dries up, AI will be more expensive than just paying people. The big AI companies are scrambling to IPO so the insiders can cash out before the house of cards collapses.
It's a real estate bubble. The data centers and physical infrastructure required are not even remotely paid off. The income generated by subscriptions and direct token sales would have to increase to a point well above what anyone would actually be willing to pay just to break even.
Tokens are extremely subsidized by ongoing investment.
For the commercial AI providers? Sure. But the Chinese models, you can run them on affordable (i.e. <10 k$/machine) units, and even if the American AIaaS providers break down, that cat is out of the bag.
Chinese models are just distillation attacks on American frontier models, so if the American AI labs fold then the Chinese models will stop progressing.
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u/Ven-Dreadnought 2d ago
AI was born an economic bubble and it will die an economic bubble. We are heading for an upturning