Ed Zitron built a massive following by saying what tech journalists won't: that generative AI is an unsustainable bubble propped up by hype and bad math.
“And it's not because it does a better job — it's because it does a quicker and cheaper job.”
The epitaph for American business. They’ll spend any amount of money as long as it doesn’t go into the pockets of the people who actually work for them.
Thanks so much for elevating Ed’s work in this space. I have to follow a lot of this and tech in general because I work in human rights policy and advocacy. There’s a great deal of hype/panic/general concern about how AI will impact human rights. And I think this is warranted, though I believe it is less the technology itself that’s a threat and much more the people behind it. They’re racing to achieve General AI, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars to get there — with very little assurance it will actually happen — while the CEOs behind it all kiss Trump’s diapered ass to keep regulators as far away as possible so we, the people, are sitting ducks for whatever they DO manage to come up with, assuming the economy doesn’t collapse. They do not have good intentions, and whether or not their tech actually does what they say it does, they’re putting us all at risk for it, whether we consent or not.
Still, useful for disciplining the workforce: "Don't you dare ask for better pay or benefits, we're getting ready to replace you all with robots ANY DAY NOW."
The media always fall for tech hype, don't they? I'm so old I remember when Segway was supposed to be a major historical turning point. And then there's always that local news segment where they fawn over a mechanical dog. Implying that flesh-and-blood pets are a thing of the past?
Between Big Tech hype and falling for the obvious lies of the police and Israel, mainstream media is shockingly and disturbingly bad at getting suckered into their subjects' narratives.
A related side-note is how the enormous energy needs of AI are being used by nuclear-power enthusiasts like Bill Gates to sell us on nuclear plants, even though wind and solar just keep getting cheaper and cheaper.
Nuclear itself is a nice counter-example to the "technological inevitability" argument, that once a particular tech is developed, "the genie is out of the bottle" and there's no stopping it, you might as well try holding back the tide.
And there are other examples of technology we've tried, have found wanting, and then abandoned. Notice how we don't have the moon bases we saw in the movie 2001? We went to the moon, promptly lost interest and redirected our energies (and money) elsewhere. A totally sensible thing to do, IMHO. But if a billionaire is a big AI enthusiast, he's probably also a big enthusiast for nuclear power and colonizing the moon and Mars.
I am old and AUTISTIC. I don't do clocks or calendars. It is the last day of summer and the first day of fall. My wife is closer to 90 than 80 and she has her own clock and we are as Flo and Eddie of the Turtles once sang Happy Together.
When my wife awoke. I asked what she wanted to hear. I played Vivaldi's four seasons. I was asked what the sublime music reminded me of. I said the ADAM computer from Coleco. It had pong a word processor, and a spreadsheet. It also played SimCity and Vivaldi's Spring. I remember when computers were the slave and we were the masters.
I worked with young men with fetal alcohol disorder. They were of normal intelligence some were even Wharton material but like your President they never ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
I watched with horror the events in Glendale Arizona and I thought what would Jesus say. I am a Jew like the Okie Woodie Guthrie who said Jesus was a man, a hard working man and brave and they laid Jesus Christ in his grave. Jesus said the truth will set you free. I remember Jack Nicolson saying "you can't handle the truth, Manmade climate change is ancient history. I remember the Trojan wars and the cities that ran out of potable water because of over population because of their wealth and power. La plus ca change. La plus la meme chose.
Charlie Kirk killed millions of innocent men, women and Children for his Christ. My brother Jesus still weeps. The truth is lemming do not commit suicide they stampede looking for new food sources instead of being like homo sapiens sapiens who ate the cousins like homo neanderthals for breakfast and raped their women and children. Saints Augustine and John Chrysostom blamed Jews like Jesus for all the world's miseries and called for our elimination after Constantine's slaughters of infidels who rejected his divinity. I remember the butcher Peter the Hermit who led the Rhineland Massacres before the sacrifice of children in Jerusalem because Peter the Hermit liked the taste of blood just like Peter of Hegseth and Donald the Drumph.
I live in a border town where the only flags flying at half mast are at the border crossing because Vermont is prosperous educated and liberal. I am old I remember that before Bernie, Ben, Jerry and brother Paul Newman and the Jewish Invasion; we called Vermont Mississippi North. Vermont. Vermont was the reddest state in the union where poverty, illiteracy and despair was ubiquitous. In 2025 we call Florida and Texas; Mississippi South.
Irving Layton loved America but he loved human beings and truth much more. He believed in free speech and shunned censorship. He is no doubt somewhere in the universe mourning the loss of a once great country. He read his poetry in my classroom in 1963 and in 2025 truth is banned in Mississippi, Tennessee, Idaho and Glendale Arizona on the weekend before the Days of Awe that Jesus celebrated. Layton wrote for His and my brother Jesus. He taught the leader of the country band at Kamala Harris' High School how to write poetry and Mr Cohen gave up his dreams of becoming a standup comic. In 1976 Kamala lived a safe ten minute walk from this lecture on Our Brother Jesus.
“And it's not because it does a better job — it's because it does a quicker and cheaper job.”
The epitaph for American business. They’ll spend any amount of money as long as it doesn’t go into the pockets of the people who actually work for them.
Thanks so much for elevating Ed’s work in this space. I have to follow a lot of this and tech in general because I work in human rights policy and advocacy. There’s a great deal of hype/panic/general concern about how AI will impact human rights. And I think this is warranted, though I believe it is less the technology itself that’s a threat and much more the people behind it. They’re racing to achieve General AI, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars to get there — with very little assurance it will actually happen — while the CEOs behind it all kiss Trump’s diapered ass to keep regulators as far away as possible so we, the people, are sitting ducks for whatever they DO manage to come up with, assuming the economy doesn’t collapse. They do not have good intentions, and whether or not their tech actually does what they say it does, they’re putting us all at risk for it, whether we consent or not.
Ed is great
Still, useful for disciplining the workforce: "Don't you dare ask for better pay or benefits, we're getting ready to replace you all with robots ANY DAY NOW."
The media always fall for tech hype, don't they? I'm so old I remember when Segway was supposed to be a major historical turning point. And then there's always that local news segment where they fawn over a mechanical dog. Implying that flesh-and-blood pets are a thing of the past?
Between Big Tech hype and falling for the obvious lies of the police and Israel, mainstream media is shockingly and disturbingly bad at getting suckered into their subjects' narratives.
OMG - two of my favorite journalists/commentators come together!
A related side-note is how the enormous energy needs of AI are being used by nuclear-power enthusiasts like Bill Gates to sell us on nuclear plants, even though wind and solar just keep getting cheaper and cheaper.
Nuclear itself is a nice counter-example to the "technological inevitability" argument, that once a particular tech is developed, "the genie is out of the bottle" and there's no stopping it, you might as well try holding back the tide.
And there are other examples of technology we've tried, have found wanting, and then abandoned. Notice how we don't have the moon bases we saw in the movie 2001? We went to the moon, promptly lost interest and redirected our energies (and money) elsewhere. A totally sensible thing to do, IMHO. But if a billionaire is a big AI enthusiast, he's probably also a big enthusiast for nuclear power and colonizing the moon and Mars.
I am old and AUTISTIC. I don't do clocks or calendars. It is the last day of summer and the first day of fall. My wife is closer to 90 than 80 and she has her own clock and we are as Flo and Eddie of the Turtles once sang Happy Together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ztmHcQTYHo&list=RD6ztmHcQTYHo&start_radio=1
When my wife awoke. I asked what she wanted to hear. I played Vivaldi's four seasons. I was asked what the sublime music reminded me of. I said the ADAM computer from Coleco. It had pong a word processor, and a spreadsheet. It also played SimCity and Vivaldi's Spring. I remember when computers were the slave and we were the masters.
I worked with young men with fetal alcohol disorder. They were of normal intelligence some were even Wharton material but like your President they never ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
https://www.cdc.gov/fasd/about/index.html
I watched with horror the events in Glendale Arizona and I thought what would Jesus say. I am a Jew like the Okie Woodie Guthrie who said Jesus was a man, a hard working man and brave and they laid Jesus Christ in his grave. Jesus said the truth will set you free. I remember Jack Nicolson saying "you can't handle the truth, Manmade climate change is ancient history. I remember the Trojan wars and the cities that ran out of potable water because of over population because of their wealth and power. La plus ca change. La plus la meme chose.
Charlie Kirk killed millions of innocent men, women and Children for his Christ. My brother Jesus still weeps. The truth is lemming do not commit suicide they stampede looking for new food sources instead of being like homo sapiens sapiens who ate the cousins like homo neanderthals for breakfast and raped their women and children. Saints Augustine and John Chrysostom blamed Jews like Jesus for all the world's miseries and called for our elimination after Constantine's slaughters of infidels who rejected his divinity. I remember the butcher Peter the Hermit who led the Rhineland Massacres before the sacrifice of children in Jerusalem because Peter the Hermit liked the taste of blood just like Peter of Hegseth and Donald the Drumph.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Rhineland_massacres.
I live in a border town where the only flags flying at half mast are at the border crossing because Vermont is prosperous educated and liberal. I am old I remember that before Bernie, Ben, Jerry and brother Paul Newman and the Jewish Invasion; we called Vermont Mississippi North. Vermont. Vermont was the reddest state in the union where poverty, illiteracy and despair was ubiquitous. In 2025 we call Florida and Texas; Mississippi South.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ubiquitous
"What power ignorance that makes your possessors seem so strong." Irving Layton.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Irving-Layton
Irving Layton loved America but he loved human beings and truth much more. He believed in free speech and shunned censorship. He is no doubt somewhere in the universe mourning the loss of a once great country. He read his poetry in my classroom in 1963 and in 2025 truth is banned in Mississippi, Tennessee, Idaho and Glendale Arizona on the weekend before the Days of Awe that Jesus celebrated. Layton wrote for His and my brother Jesus. He taught the leader of the country band at Kamala Harris' High School how to write poetry and Mr Cohen gave up his dreams of becoming a standup comic. In 1976 Kamala lived a safe ten minute walk from this lecture on Our Brother Jesus.
https://westmount.emsb.qc.ca/whs
https://archive.org/details/ybc-fbr-513_4512/01-513.wav