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Yes, that is what the money could have been used for. Altruistic or otherwise, this is what could have been done with that degree of money. Let’s pull on this
by intended 4mo ago
Yes, that is what the money could have been used for. Altruistic or otherwise, this is what could have been done with that degree of money.
Let’s pull on this thread though. This money is investment, in the hope that it grows into more than a trillion.
Right now, this looks like it’s mostly going to displace workers. Some of it will address demand that cannot be addressed directly; you couldn’t afford an editor to look over your emails, now you can.
Much of it will wipe out intern level work across the entire economy, reducing the opportunities for people to learn and develop.
This tech is already devastating education across the globe, and has been built on outright theft of creative work by people who can expect nothing in return.
There was an article on HN how authors of self-help books are seeing a reduction in revenue from book sales, so this is wiping out multiple sources of revenue via automated harvesting of content.
What, precisely, is there to be happy about here? The convenience of writing more code, at the cost of everyone else’s happiness?
There is a LOT better, that could be done with $1 tn.
- scoofy 4mo ago>Yes, that is what the money could have been used for. Altruistic or otherwise If we take peoples' retirement investments, and spend it on puppy dogs and ice cream for veterans and children, we're going to be in a worse place than we started a few years down the road. Maybe the market will crash. Maybe it will grow. It's hard to say, but that's the point if investing.
- intended 4mo agoThat isn't what is happening though. None of this is based on anything that stands up to scrutiny. This isn't investing, this is buying the story being sold for AI. Lest we forget, A story whose bull case, automates the jobs of many people who are currently employed, creating a gig economy for white collar work. Anyone who is buying this, is buying this for the potential future payoff. The firms themselves bleed money at scales that makes the destruction in outright war look like a responsible use of resources.
- fc417fc802 4mo ago> This tech is already devastating education across the globe, and has been built on outright theft of creative work by people who can expect nothing in return. Not sure you realize how divorced from reality this statement appears (at least to me). These things make fantastic personal tutors for material up though the bachelor's level that are available around the clock and never tire of your inane questions. Currently google offers this for free on their home page without even needing to log in (at least from a residential ISP in the US).
- intended 4mo agoMultiple educators and institutes are grappling with a plague of cheating. This is just a recent article : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48708991 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48708991 LLMs are found to erode skill > https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872 https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872 LLMs have largely been a net negative on human education systems.
- fc417fc802 4mo agoIf some subset of people use calculators to cheat or their skills atrophy how does that have anything to do with whether or not they serve a useful purpose? LLMs will revolutionize education for those that care to learn. They will have at least as large an impact on access to knowledge as wikipedia had ~25 years ago.
- intended 4mo agoI went down this rabbit hole, and if you see the MIT study, its not calculators anymore. Also - which kid (or adult) wants to study instead of just play? Furthermore, Wikipedia (and calculators) were largely free, nor did they come with a side of white collar work automation.