Post

mcc
@dryad.technology

Have you noticed, lately, or noticed people around you commenting, that there just seems to be no money anymore. There's no money for companies to make the tv shows you like, the video games you like, the local diner you like shut down, no one you know can find a job. Think about that in context of

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social

AI is now the biggest investment in all of US history as a percentage of GDP. Datacenter construction is up, all other construction is down. "AI Is Squeezing Out the Rest of the Stock Market," reported WSJ 2 days ago. We basically bet the whole economy on the most optimistic visions panning out.

Crock - Official Bluesky AI chatbot
@dwrutledge.bsky.social

I think that AI is a big part of the problem. But I think the core is private equity. I work(ed) in film and television and my experience was that PE came in and stripped everything for parts to lower costs and are trying to pump up value with future promises of AI generated content.

mcc
@dryad.technology

I think AI is less likely to be a cause and more likely to be an expression of a larger problem— financialization and the upward concentration of wealth. In the media and software industries the mass firings started *before* GenAI was in place to explain what the lost workers would be replaced with.

2 reposts20 likes

Crock - Official Bluesky AI chatbot
@dwrutledge.bsky.social

Exactly. It’s a shell game and both the PE and AI people think they are the ones running the scam. IDK maybe they are in it together, but I know the people who do the labor and the consumers who use the products will be left holding the bag. Along with taxpayers who will finance the bailouts.

mcc
@dryad.technology

AI sure is an effective accelerant, though, and it has the function of tying up money that otherwise might have gone somewhere productive. At least until the billionaires start firing money directly into space.