Okay okay... now before you do anything rash, let me explain, and I'll tell you why I think this!

The AI bubble IS real, and there is going to be some sort of economic event, and that can be good or bad. I'm not sure. The bubble created by the five companies trading money back and forth, and creating these data centers. They are going to collapse under their own weight. I think that part is true, but I don't think it will have ripple effects on the economy as a whole. At least not as big as people think.

Additionally, the other aspect is the data center problem. I do agree that the corporations switching from consumer electronics to purely enterprise is dumb. That is going to bite themselves in the foot, as the consumers will outlast the companies, and we will remember.

The solution is actually far simpler than you might think, however it will take a bit for it to propagate.

AI Boom and Crash?

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Look I'm not an economics expert, and this is just my opinion based on what I am seeing.

I think that the "hype" around this AI bubble popping, quite like the housing bubble of 2008 people referred to. It quite possibly could do this.

People don't realize just how unprofitable most of these ai companies are, and maybe OpenAI has it right with adding ads. Which I hate to say because I think its super gross of them to do. However another point of view I saw in a video recently (don't have the link sorry), is that this keeps things democratized.

As in right now you can pay for the higher tier models or use the free version. As the models become ad supported, then it keeps the free version around, and possibly access to higher tier models for limited use.

The key point there is that IT IS STILL USABLE, by anyone, from any background.

This makes sense from a business standpoint, and I am by no means defending these huge companies. I'm on the side of the user, and I want it free myself. I even signed up for Google Antigravity plan because it was free to use a higher tier of Claude Opus coding agent.

I do not want to spend on AI's, unless its hardware to be honest, and so I am one of those people who would probably be using ad supported.

I am grateful to my uncle for helping me get a bit of Perplexity usage at one point too when it was cheaper. Getting me more used to using AI.

Point being is that if they don't find a way to monetize, then it will be sort of a caste system. Where the people who are able to pay, will keep the good ai, and the people who can't will not be able to.

As for the hardware price rises, such as the ram and SSD markets. Those I can't say for sure what will happen, but it doesn't seem sustainable. Given that most data centers aren't even running at full capacity at this point. As I'll mention in the next section too, the real solution will drive those capacity usage levels even farther down...

Cloud vs Local

Okay hear me out, AI is NOT Bad, but I understand the legitimate concerns with the water usage and power usage.

However those situations are somewhat temporary from what I can tell, and here's why. For one the models are getting more and more efficient, which means they need less power and processing to run. The centers won't just up and downgrade though, but they may stop buying as much hardware over time.

Hopefully needing less power too will keep them more cool, which means less water usage.

The REAL solution I think though is that the AI processing is going to get MORE decentralized. Meaning each person is going to have a device, whether its their phone (less likely), or their computer (more likely) that will have a capable NPU chip in them. Now technically a lot of phones already have one, but they aren't very capable.

We are seeing however more computers, such as the AMD AI Max chips, that are coming with NPU's (the ai processor) with enough power to run large language models to a decent degree.

If you run it on your own electricity, there is a much greater chance that the electricity is coming from a more reliable source. I.e. solar panels on your roof, or wind farm, etc. Plus the cooling doesn't matter as it is heating up your house, which can be good.

Local AI is the point, and I think that is the future we are headed towards.

From AI Bubble Popping to Democratized and Decentralized

Look this post was merely a way for you to view a different perspective, and honestly I made it to try and give some of you hope.

I think that there are a lot of dramatic creators out there, spouting out a lot of information and theories, and most of it is negative.

This post however shows a path forward that can be perceived as a positive one. AI is not going away, and it probably shouldn't. It has the potential to improve countless people's lives, and the more you learn how to use it now while it IS STILL FREE. Then the better your life will become too.