[throwaway77385]

Things that can only be used by an exclusive elite don't tend to survive, unless we're talking super-yachts.

AI is only going to work if enough people can actually meaningfully use it.

Therefore, the monetisation model will have to adapt in ways that make it sustainable. OpenAI is experimenting with ads. Other companies will just subsidise the living daylights out of their solutions...and a few people will indeed run this stuff locally.

Look at how slow the adoption of VR has been. And how badly Meta's gamble on the metaverse went. It's still too expensive for most people. Yes, a small elite can afford the necessary equipment, but that's not a petri dish on which one can grow a paradigm-shift.

If only a few thousand people could afford [insert any invention here], that invention wouldn't be common-place nowadays.

Now, the pyramid has sort of been turned on its head, in the sense that things nowadays don't start expensive and then become cheaper, but instead start cheap and then become...something else, be that more expensive or riddled with ads. But there are limits to this.

> People who are cut out to be software developers

You mean the people AI is going to replace? What's the definition of 'cut out to be' here?

[bigbadfeline]

> Now, the pyramid has sort of been turned on its head,

It has, and the financial system enables that, the self-restraint that was promised at the time of gutting Glass-Steagall never materialized.

> But there are limits to this.

Yes and no.

Yes, because there are limits as there's a limit to the load placed on a ship, if you overload it with some cargo, something or somebody must be thrown overboard in order to preserve the ship.

No, because those who're responsible for loading and overloading the ship are the ones commanding and steering it. When they overload the ship they get to throw you overboard and keep your stuff too... there's nothing to compel them to stay within limits and everything to tempt them to do the opposite.

We've been already thrown overboard with regard to hardware purchases, that will spread to other areas with the BS AI excuse.

So many comments, other than yours, around here engage in deep thinking about the profits or losses of Captain Ahab... they miss the point entirely.

[throwaway77385]

Salient point, regarding the 'no' bit. I agree completely. But since I was responding to a likely troll, there wasn't much point elaborating further. Thanks for the added information :)