I very much get a "we just discovered radium and want to put it in everything" vibe from this whole generative AI bubble.
(Including the thing where companies used to slap the word "radium" on existing products even though they thankfully did not actually have any radioactive materials. Like "radium butter".)
Examine the motives of the wealthy investors behind AI.
The Saudi royals like Alwaleed bin Talal and Mohammed bin Salman want an AI-enabled international state surveillance platform.
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-google-hand-dissident-data-to-saudi-arabia-activists-say-2023-7
So do Larry Ellison & Peter Thiel.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/omnipresent-ai-cameras-will-ensure-good-behavior-says-larry-ellison/
https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/12/larry_ellison_wants_all_data/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/silicon-valleys-quest-to-live-forever
Koch Network wants AI-enabled price fixing, stock market manipulation, and profitable housing cost inflation.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/ai-price-algorithms-realpage/679405/
@Npars01 @cuchaz @varx And as you've pointed out before (Nicole), the Saudis and Kochs want the continued sink for ever more electricity, to sustain demand for fossil fuels while transportation and other major sectors move the now and henceforth more-economical renewable electricity.
Along with the surveillance and the market manipulation, the waste is the point.
varx/tech
Jeff Martin
Nicole Parsons
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Martin Rundkvist