> The reason why AI companies are spending so much money is to rollout data centres to run the AI in the first place. These expenses are one-off purchases, not regular operating expenses. Once all the data centres are built, AI spending is going to plummet

Unless nobody is working on miniaturisation, then this reasoning might hold true.

As seen throughout history, any sufficiently absurd tech starts largescale (refrigerators, computer, radios) and eventually become portable.

Amortising data Center cost will take a long time. Within that time, if someone figures out how to make ai run on cheaper hardware, these data center cost will Become harder to recover.

> AI companies can also cut costs by no longer allowing people to use their products for free and temporarily suspending expensive AI research

That will just kill the industry.