Anthropic / OpenAI / SpaceX going public makes it easier for capital to both flow to and away from them.

It's a component of a few psych frameworks around improving interpersonal conflict. Ref: https://hartsteinpsychological.com/the-power-of-active-liste...

Short template form is "What I think I heard you say is (repeat their words as exactly as possible)? Did I get that right?"

As that transition happens, hardware evolves from general purpose (because nobody knows what's needed and hardware design is slow) to fixed function high performance (once requirements are better defined).

GPUs (and TPUs) are a weird middle-ground here, as they're already fairly specialized, but I wouldn't bet against next gen AI inference-optimized hardware architectures dominating that use case in ~10 years if the pace of AI arch tweaking slows.

The efficiency/power/cost gains from fixed function optimization are always too great, and the only thing that holds that approach back is rapidly mutating requirements.

You are explained things (least important part) and then you invest substantial amounts of time in practicing and exercising those new skills.

Then, in your junior level jobs, the same cycle repeats.

That exercise component isn't going to happen in university with AI in the loop, because AI will be able to shortcut basic practice.

And it isn't going to happen in junior level work, because AI will be able to do those jobs more economically efficiently.

See previous from HN fp for a more eloquent explanation: https://ergosphere.blog/posts/the-machines-are-fine/

Just to add that to the crazy pile.

I don't see an AI-as-explainer future where expertise isn't sacrificed en masse.

Capitalism rarely supports a currently economically unproductive alternative for future good reasons.

The recent AI tech layoffs are a warning sign that corporate leaders will happily shoot their company's (and the future's) expertise to pad next quarter's financials and trust in 90% correct, but much cheaper, AI.

Data centers at scale, less so.

But I suppose that's why Altman and Musk have been cozying up to autocratic Middle Eastern regimes and dreaming about AI in space...

The unfortunate truth of western economic history is that capital does not willingly share its profits unless forced to (by government or labor).

The core point here is about power.

Assuming AI takes off and automates large sections of the economy, who gets to have control over those entities?

It seems a bit premature to identify the current major AI labs as inevitably being the ones to benefit.

But I am sympathetic to the idea that having the public as a (mostly) silent partner, both in profits and control, is prudent.

Where it gets dangerous is how "the public's" equity share is represented and by whom.

F.ex. I'd be vociferously opposed to the current kleptomaniacal US administration being able to wield 50% control

That didn't happen because they were magically amazing at search forever.

It happened because Google had a good business plan and could afford to throw gobs of money at engineers and infrastructure, in quantities that even Microsoft was unwilling to match.

And as Gibson later said ~00s, cyberpunk's moment is past and now it's boring. (At least according to him, but that counts for something)

While being completely oblivious to the literary themes. But as the meme goes, tech bro philosophy is just sophomore know-it-all-shallowly-ism.

Because reading deeply would require spending more time, which is a well-known anti-pattern.

Self-debasing levity is one of the many reasons Snow Crash (1992) is a great reaction to Neuromancer (1984).

Without those prescient and lucky acquisitions, we'd be talking about a "Google" that looked much more like Yahoo.

It wasn't search proficiency that built the empire, it was leveraging a transient search quality advantage into cash flow, then plowing that cash into acquisitions to construct a durable moat.

2010s Javascript, putting down the controller: Ha, no one will ever surpass my high score for wasting programmer time with dependency churn...

2026 Open Source ML: Hold my beer.