> The point I am making is that the reason artefacts of highly automated production (even with minimal human labor required) will never become accessible for very low human labor, because all that automation has its own cost

While I'm not sure I agree, this is not solved by tackling things at a low level and should be done at a higher level of abstraction - that's what they were saying.

> don't think that makes much sense. If a data center consumes all available electricity in a given municipality, it may provide AI services at a very low cost, but thereby makes the region uninhabitable.

If the data center was providing streaming services would you want to manage that differently? Imagine you had a data center that solved some user problem X, and another one that solves the same problem. Data center A uses AI, B does not but uses more power. Would you want to tax B less? Given what you've said so far I'd assume the answer is no - you'd want to tax that more because it's not really the AI part you care about, it's the power usage/emissions/local impact/externality X you want to avoid.

> I agree that it's a systemic issue that must be addressed holistically, but the actual solutions have to be implemented at all levels of the production chain.

Actually the more abstract sometimes the fewer places you have to deal with it. You don't have to figure out what cars everyone has, the specific MPG of each, driving patterns, how far your delivery driver went, whether they had other packages, etc - you can tax gasoline. This automatically flows through and avoids lots of wrangling about details and loopholes.

> Currently, we often pick the latter option, because it usually has the better profit margin.

Yes - and this drive makes it hard to manage when you put very precise rules around it. Tax AI and watch things rebrand as whatever falls just outside the limits of AI. See how products are built, deconstructed and remade exactly based on specific tariffs. Ford used to ship vans with windows and seats installed, then take them out again after they arrived!