went mini viral the other week on Twitter after randomly expressing my annoyance at AI in the cadence of Dr. Seuss. no stranger to going mini viral, it happens to me on average of every 2-3 years over something that is completely normal and mundane to me. previously went mini viral for having both my (ex)husband + (ex)bf at my birthday party. oh and that time I accidentally slept through a date that the guy had to pay a $70 cancellation fee for. he asked me to pay him back the cancellation fee. this sparked a debate on twitter over whether I should pay him back or not, I of course did not.

AI is a buzz word, more than it is a credible technology at this point. the umbrella term is usually describing generative AI or language learning models or machine learning. AI is being used by startups to attract venture capital and brands are integrating AI for fear of looking old-fashioned, which is the worst thing you could be in tech, right?

One thing about AI that’s for certain is it’s incredibly resource intensive, the numbers out there say an AI query requires 10x more energy than a regular Google search. the tech overlords are opening data centers to keep up with this demand but one thing about AI thus far? it’s not profitable, they are losing money on AI. it seems so far the business model of AI is the following:

step 1. spend tremendous resources on AI so we look relevant and up to date

step 2. let people use extremely costly technology for free in hopes of mass adoption

step 3. ???

step 4. profit

my prediction is they think that AI will eventually become profitable once everyone can’t live without it and when that time comes they will recoup their losses by making all the free users pay. but even with a paid model, AI is STILL losing money, as per Sam Altman, owner of OpenAI:

if even paid AI is losing money because people are using it too much you essentially have a product that becomes less profitable the more people use it. it seems counter intuitive from a business standpoint to push mass adoption of a technology that becomes less profitable the more it’s used.

my biggest question is does AI know the meaningful difference between these sentences:

The bias is baked in (when a quality is inherent to a thing)

I baked the cake (the act of baking a cake)

I baked in the sun (the act of getting a tan)

I baked my face (a make up technique made popular by YouTube makeup gurus)

I’m baked man (a colloquialism for expressing that someone is high on cannabis)

if it didn’t, it probably will after this.