The Hidden “AI Tax”: Why Your Next Smartphone is Shockingly Expensive (And How to Beat the System in 2026)

You are ready for an upgrade. Your battery drains by lunchtime, your apps are lagging, and you walk into a store expecting a massive leap in technology. Instead, you are greeted by eye-watering prices for devices that look and perform suspiciously like the phone you bought three years ago. You are not imagining this stagnation, and it is not just standard inflation. You are paying the “AI Tax.”

The explosive, worldwide growth of Artificial Intelligence has created a severe global component shortage, and it is quietly reshaping the consumer electronics market. Here is exactly why your tech is getting more expensive, the paradox at the heart of the industry, and how you can protect your wallet.

The next time you purchase a new smartphone or laptop, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise: significantly higher prices for hardware that feels suspiciously similar to last year’s models. The driving force behind this shift is the explosive, worldwide growth of Artificial Intelligence. The rapid advancement of AI data centers has created what industry experts call an “AI Tax”—a severe global component shortage that is hitting the wallets of everyday consumers.

https://www.nbloglinks.com/the-hidden-ai-tax-how-to-beat-rising-tech-prices-in-2026/

#AI #technews #techprices #AItax #business #smartphones #AInews #AIData

Dinge, die durch KI teurer werden: Hetzner erhöht ab April die Preise für vServer um über 30 Prozent. Weil RAM und Festplatten teurer sind, so die Begründung.

#aitax #kisteuer #kinflation #ainflation #ai #ki #hetzner #vserver

RE: https://oldfriends.live/@paul/115743334738126963

Another feck'n month where our electric usage was lower than last year for the same month because we did energy improvements but the electric bill was twice as much, just because all the data center energy brokers are bidding up the electric grid energy auctions, and can, because right now they have unlimited pockets. This nonsense has to stop. I'm calling it the #AItax.

#USPol #DataCenters #economy .

A French collecting society wants a tax on generative AI, payable to…collecting societies

Back in October last year, Walled Culture wrote about a proposed law in France that would see a tax imposed on AI companies, with the proceeds being paid to a collecting society. Now that the EU’s AI Act has been adopted, it is being invoked as another reason why just such a system should be set up. The French collecting society SPEDIDAM (which translates as […]

#aiAct #aiTax #collectingSocieties #eu #france #spedidam

https://walledculture.org/a-french-collecting-society-wants-a-tax-on-generative-ai-payable-tocollecting-societies/