this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2026
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Even if AI takes off the way people hope it will, that does not mean that data center investments will pay out.
Local models exist and are a viable alternative (partially to substantially to completely) to sending every query to a centralized data center that is extracting profit from every token.
On top of that, everyone is now aware of the risks of tech dependency, and big players, the ones that would be sending their money to OpenAI or Anthropic, are the ones best able to declare their independence.
That's also ignoring the access to data question. Who knows how much the providers are logging. It wouldn't surprise me if "new companies" pop up out of the blue with surprisingly competitive hardware and software sometime in the next decade.
Also the vast majority of people don't get any benefit from LLMs and won't be willing or able to afford the actual cost to use them.
Hell, I would be surprised if the majority of people used AI for anything digital assistants or web searches were doing successfuly before they were replaced with AI bullshit.
Yes, certainly! It's hilarious to me that people think the market broadly adopting a FREE product is somehow indicative of its economic viability. You just have to look at the journalism to see the chasm between use and profitability. And LLM's, unlike almost every other form of modern software-based technology, does not scale. When Facebook doubles their user base, they double their revenue stream, at a fraction of a cost of exanding their costs. But when an LLM doubles its user base, it also doubles its costs.
AI is not a monopolizable product like Facebook, nor a locked-in key infrastructure ecosystem like Microsoft. It is a commodity, like toilet paper or oil or crackers. Anyone can enter the market to compete with you. No company will ever "own" AI--at least not this iteration of it.
Not even adopting really. Theyre shoehorning it in everywhere. When it's a simple button in your chat app or search then of course people will use it. But they certainly aren't going to pay for it.