Software is a "good", as far as economic statistics go.
AI is helping produce more software, right? Including more software that is for sale?[1] Or more online services that are for sale?
[1] One of the interesting things here is going to be liability. You can vibecode an app. You can throw together a corporation to sell it. But if it malfunctions and causes damage, your thrown-together corporation won't have the resources to pay for it. Yeah, you can just have the company declare bankruptcy and walk away, leaving the user high and dry.
After that happens a few times, the commercial market for vibecoded apps may get kind of thin. In fact, the market for software sold by any kind of startup may also get thin.
Software stopped being a good when it no longer came in a box with finite inventory, that you had to pay for only once. It's part of the services economy, same as insurance or car rental services, regardless of how the Fed classifies it.
So is the premise here that making more software is going to have a deflationary effect on the entire economy of material goods? If so then that's obviously nonsensical.
> Anything that AI makes more efficient to produce. You can make a lot of money if you can predict the scope of that.
So slop? And maybe bespoke software?
Those aren't the goods that unemployed workers need.
AI won't lead to abundance, because of the simple fact it can't produce energy. The things people need will still be resource constrained, and many of those resources are getting redirected away from people to power AI.
AnimalMuppet|4 days ago
AI is helping produce more software, right? Including more software that is for sale?[1] Or more online services that are for sale?
[1] One of the interesting things here is going to be liability. You can vibecode an app. You can throw together a corporation to sell it. But if it malfunctions and causes damage, your thrown-together corporation won't have the resources to pay for it. Yeah, you can just have the company declare bankruptcy and walk away, leaving the user high and dry.
After that happens a few times, the commercial market for vibecoded apps may get kind of thin. In fact, the market for software sold by any kind of startup may also get thin.
rchaud|4 days ago
measurablefunc|4 days ago
twoodfin|4 days ago
measurablefunc|4 days ago
palmotea|4 days ago
So slop? And maybe bespoke software?
Those aren't the goods that unemployed workers need.
AI won't lead to abundance, because of the simple fact it can't produce energy. The things people need will still be resource constrained, and many of those resources are getting redirected away from people to power AI.