The Coming AI Crash

Investment in AI is insane. It’s all that’s keeping the markets moving forward right now. The investments are a high stakes gamble. The business is being driven by the relentless desire of companies to eliminate head count. 

For the average person this is a lose lose proposition. If (or when) the AI bubble crashes it’s going to take down the economy. A lot of people are going to suffer should that happen. On the other hand, if AI proves wildly successful a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. That will drive down the wages of what few jobs remain.

Then there’s the issue of who’s going to buy the products that AI makes when nobody has an income. 

It gets worse. AI uses so much power that it’s driving up electric rates for every rate payer where data centers are built. Power demands are so high that the only way to power the expansion is with nuclear reactors. 

On a personal level I recently had a very unsatisfactory interaction with a company’s AI. Just after placing an order I noticed some items had been ordered by accident. No problem I thought, I’ll just click onto customer service and sort it out before it’s packaged and shipped. I thought I was dealing with a person at first. Then I thought I was dealing with an idiot person. Only later did it become clear it was an AI. There was no way to stop the order from being packaged and made ready for shipment. 

Fortunately a second mistake saved me from the first mistake. (Sometimes two wrongs really  do make a right.) One tiny bit of information had been omitted that was needed before they could ship. The only thing to do was to not give them that information. AI bots were very persistent about me giving that info. Over and over it was emphasized that my order was ready to go. After days of this a human finally canceled my order. Their use of AI for customer service convinced me to never do business with them ever again.

-Sixbears