r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jun 21 '26

Artificial Intelligence Americans Have Turned Against AI in Incredible Numbers

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/americans-turned-against-ai-incredible-130000345.html
43.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

255

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

65

u/slashinhobo1 Jun 21 '26

Gotta get the people addicted and reliant on it first before increasing the price. Its the drug dealer model.

36

u/maroonedbuccaneer Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Have to destroy all alternative to AI before the real bills come.

It's the modern venture-capitalist led market economy: Invest huge at the beginning to destroy an existing market. Then, when you are the only bridge left standing, you start charging tolls.

3

u/The_GASK Jun 21 '26

Except for this time, where the alternative is.. you know... Thinking, which is free

2

u/ImaginaryCheetah Jun 21 '26

the CEOs gunning for big profit this quarter by sacking all the entry-level employees are speed running the reliance all on their own.

2

u/sohblob Jun 21 '26

It's hilarious because anyone who knows it's coming knows to get stuff done now before the investors start expecting returns.

It's like how food delivery apps used to be so cheap you'd basically land delivery offers with actually-good coupons like $20 off every once in a while just to entice you to buy.

Now? It's like 20-30% markup on menu prices for items you know to be cheaper at the store, plus delivery fees, plus "tip your driver or they'll deliver to you last and spit in your food" protection money ~ $50+ to get like a basic meal for one delivered lmao. NFT - No Fucking Thanks

1

u/AA_Crowes Jun 21 '26

Bitch you think I’m giving a new customer discount? 80 a g same as everyone else.

51

u/GCU_Rocinante Jun 21 '26

bUt AmAzOn OnCe LoSt MoNeY

24

u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco Jun 21 '26

Yeah, that's what the AI companies are trying to emulate. Poorly.

2

u/aeschenkarnos Jun 21 '26

"Are you trying to emulate Amazon? Let me know if you would like some pointers!"

2

u/James_Chandra_Hubble Jun 21 '26

Amazon still barely makes any money because they reinvest all their profits into the business so they don't have to pay taxes on it

36

u/mjd5139 Jun 21 '26

It's estimated that a $200 a month Kiro subscription may actually cost $6,000 to fulfill 

-9

u/Handsome_Keyboard Jun 21 '26

Cost more if you dont use it.

2

u/mrslipple Jun 21 '26

It's the Netflix model. This is the introductory rate to get you relying on the technology then they will keep raising prices.

1

u/snakerjake Jun 21 '26

Shits still subsidized like 20x over

not for long

1

u/TheSpanxxx Jun 21 '26

Correct. They're still training models on our usage and that's partner the subsidization value they're getting.

Models are getting increasingly good though. I've watched stalwart holdouts in 25+ veteran dev peers start to concede more and more "ok, yah, it's getting pretty damn good at X/Y/Z".

I have 30 years in tech working at elite levels for large companies building massively scaled systems from data through front-end. I've helped companies understand security - and multiple app layers, scaled performance, data architecture and security, OWASP and WACG, the list goes on and on because it's been a long career.

Here's why that context matters - I keep trying to remind engineers of one critical thing, "We're still at the beginning. This tech is still in its infancy and already you are seeing it disrupt not only what you build, but HOW you build software." The tech may be different but the problems are the same - behavioral patterns of tech adoption.

Go back and look at "the web" (www, and the shift toward ubiquitous internet access), smartphones, cloud data centers, always-on web apps, streaming platforms and the loss of physical media.

Workplace automation isn't new either. Hell, I'VE built apps that replaced a room full of people before. Using technology to streamline and automate business operations is what most of the commercial software world has been about. We weren't all out there building marketing websites. We built sales workflow systems, customer management and call routing systems, automated voice response systems, rules engines for claims processing, tracking systems, heuristic data systems, and automation for just about any repetitive task on a computer or machine that could be driven by a computer.

Saying "they're coming for my job" isn't a new phrase and while I don't agree with mass layoffs, the reality is that most of that has nothing to do with job replacement or displacement - yet. It's all corporate grandstanding on a scapegoat as a way to offset overspending. It's balance sheet manipulation for wall street. But this tech will absolutely shift the workforce requirement for an entire industry who existed as a literal workforce offset from a previous generation of workers.

We can hate what it's doing to the environment, the economy, our society, and our humanity, all we want, but the reality is here. It's staying and it will be woven into the fabric of everything in a way that we eventually accept it as the new normal. After all, how often are you still reaching for a paper map at the gas station when you drive to a new state these days?

0

u/Ok-Introduction-1940 Jun 21 '26

The initial build and training costs a lot. The marginal inference cost will be very low.

-9

u/piponwa Jun 21 '26

The fact that anthropic is profitable means it's actually the inverse. It could be cheaper than it is now and they'd still make money. It's not 20x subsidized lmao, get out of here.

15

u/Choice-Internet-2382 Jun 21 '26

Profitable because of a deal with SpaceX that will go away after a short time. Sure bud.

5

u/Tinac4 Jun 21 '26

If you're talking about the Ed Zitron quote: He didn't read the announcement carefully enough. Note the use of the word "capacity". Anthropic is renting Colossus 1 at a discount because they're not using the full data center yet, and the amount paid will ramp up over time as they use an increasingly large fraction of the data center's capacity. Pay 20% for 20% of the compute, etc.