this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy (for now) (www.bloodinthemachine.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by chobeat@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] WhirlpoolBrewer@lemmings.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

In a capitalist society, what is good or best is irrelevant. All that matters is if it makes money. AI makes no money. The $200 and $300/month plans put in rate limits because at those prices they're losing too much money. Lets say the beak-even cost for a single request is somewhere between $1-$5 depending on the request just for the electricity, and people can barely afford food, housing, and transportation as it is. What is the business model for these LLMs going to be? A person could get a coffee today, or send a single request to an LLM? Now start thinking that they'll need newer gpus next year. And the year after that. And after that. And the data center will need maintenance. They're paying literally millions of dollars to individual programmers.

Maybe there is a niche market for mega corporations like Google who can afford to spend thousands of dollars a day on LLMs, but most companies won't be able to afford these tools. Then there is the problem where if the company can afford these tools, do they even need them?

The only business model that makes sense to me is the one like BMW uses for their car seat warmers. BMW requires you to pay a monthly subscription to use the seat warmers in their cars. LLM makers could charge a monthly subscription to run a micro model on your own device. That free assistant in your Google phone would then be pay walled. That way businesses don't need to carry the cost of the electricity, but the LLM is going to be fairly low functioning compared to what we get for free today. But the business model could work. As long as people don't install a free version.

I don't buy the idea that "LLMs are good so they are going to be a success". Not as long as investors want to make money on their investments.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I imagine a dystopia where the main internet has been destroyed and watered down so you can only access it through a giant corpo llm (isps will become llmsps) So you choose between watching an ai generated movie for entertainment or a coffee. Because they will destroy the internet any way they can.

Also they'll charge more for prompts related to things you like. Its all there for the plundering, and consumers want it.

[–] obbeel@mander.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago

I believe that if something has enough value, people are willing to pay for it. And by people here I mean primarily executives. The problem is that AI has not enough value to sustain the hype.

[–] General_Effort@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Lets say the beak-even cost for a single request is somewhere between $1-$5 depending on the request just for the electricity,

Are you baiting the fine people here?