alt Hacker News> They're on a treadmill where stopping is death, and the treadmill costs $10bn a year to keep running.
You’re literally describing all companies. Google takes about $270bn/year to run. If they stopped spending that they’d die pretty darn quick. It’s also a description of working - unless you’d built up significant savings, if you stopped working you’re also going to die.
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The problem is I don’t think computing is going back to the mainframe era you know where all the computing is done remotely and the only thing you have in front of you is a terminal that is the AI slop maker’s dream, the computing power on the desktop/laptop/tablet/phone is getting better and the models are getting smaller and quicker.
There is no moat. In the end, what we are calling AI today will just be something that is incorporated into an existing programs that people will use to help them accomplish a task. The public will not be paying more for it. It will just be a commodity added to the existing ecosystems we have today. They
> You’re literally describing all companies.
No, not quite. It really comes down to opex vs capex and the depreciation schedule for your investment.
Software development is typically categorized as capex, on a 3-5 year depreciation schedule. You assume the software you write today will be generating value for you that long.
If a big, expensive model training project only gives you value for a year or less, that is not like most companies.