Unfortunately, that’s about as likely as the tech giants paying for the data they use to train their models.
The thing is: even under the status quo, AI is already a money-losing venture due to its enormous energy consumption alone (only a fraction of the actual costs). If the tech giants were now required to cover the costs they currently avoid by misusing public infrastructure and stealing the work of others, there is simply no business model that would be profitable.
Even if additional revenue—such as from advertising (Google’s main source of income)—were to be added, which will almost inevitably happen sooner or later, it doesn’t account for the tech giants having to cover the additional costs they would incur if things were done properly.
Or to put it another way: The hype would come to an abrupt end if the courts did not rule in favor of the billionaires. Because then AI would not be economically viable to operate, at least not with those LLMs that the tech giants tout as all-knowing “artificial intelligence,” which is intended to be used by the general public as well as by companies to supposedly replace workers.
In short: Not only are the promises regarding the technology’s potential massively exaggerated, but the corresponding business models are also built on sand—they simply cannot work if the tech giants were also required to bear the costs they are legitimately obligated to bear.
Edit: Given this context, in my view there can really only be two reasons why the tech giants are still investing so heavily in AI:
It is a “pump and dump” scheme of unprecedented scale, because the major investors will still make enormous profits even when the bubble bursts, since they are the ones keeping the hype alive and will therefore be the first to sell their shares with profit before everything collapses.
It is an attempt by billionaires to centralize the world to their advantage, because multi-billion-dollar corporations are the only ones capable of covering the astronomical costs of developing AI models and operating them. Consequently, they are also the only ones who stand to profit from the widespread adoption of the technology. A bit like in the Middle Ages, when the monopoly on knowledge lay exclusively with the clergy: The billionaires would have absolute interpretive authority—exclusive control over the medium and thus, in a sense, also over what is generally accepted as truth, which narratives are socially accepted, and so on. It would multiply their current, already enormous power yet again.
Unfortunately, that’s about as likely as the tech giants paying for the data they use to train their models.
The thing is: even under the status quo, AI is already a money-losing venture due to its enormous energy consumption alone (only a fraction of the actual costs). If the tech giants were now required to cover the costs they currently avoid by misusing public infrastructure and stealing the work of others, there is simply no business model that would be profitable.
Even if additional revenue—such as from advertising (Google’s main source of income)—were to be added, which will almost inevitably happen sooner or later, it doesn’t account for the tech giants having to cover the additional costs they would incur if things were done properly.
Or to put it another way: The hype would come to an abrupt end if the courts did not rule in favor of the billionaires. Because then AI would not be economically viable to operate, at least not with those LLMs that the tech giants tout as all-knowing “artificial intelligence,” which is intended to be used by the general public as well as by companies to supposedly replace workers.
In short: Not only are the promises regarding the technology’s potential massively exaggerated, but the corresponding business models are also built on sand—they simply cannot work if the tech giants were also required to bear the costs they are legitimately obligated to bear.
Edit: Given this context, in my view there can really only be two reasons why the tech giants are still investing so heavily in AI:
It is a “pump and dump” scheme of unprecedented scale, because the major investors will still make enormous profits even when the bubble bursts, since they are the ones keeping the hype alive and will therefore be the first to sell their shares with profit before everything collapses.
It is an attempt by billionaires to centralize the world to their advantage, because multi-billion-dollar corporations are the only ones capable of covering the astronomical costs of developing AI models and operating them. Consequently, they are also the only ones who stand to profit from the widespread adoption of the technology. A bit like in the Middle Ages, when the monopoly on knowledge lay exclusively with the clergy: The billionaires would have absolute interpretive authority—exclusive control over the medium and thus, in a sense, also over what is generally accepted as truth, which narratives are socially accepted, and so on. It would multiply their current, already enormous power yet again.
I think it’s a bit of both.