We know it will because it’s already been happening, we see it everywhere.
It’s not you, we’ve all noticed the deterioration of quality in tech.
This concept of the big tech tycoons being fixated on Large Language Models and chatbots to crowding out actual innovation in computing automation is of course a big thesis within Karen Hao’s book “Empire of AI” – that these LLM chatbot machinations are basically crowding out research into defined and controlled models that could really advance concise scientific uses. And it reminds me very much of my long-time pet peeve about how the Romans failed to develop the steam engine even though they had the technology, and the Mayan Empire likely fell because of a political cult that abandoned water management science and infrastructure they’d used for years which was demise making when the droughts came repeatedly.
And all the wrong incentives are firmly being pushed with AI chatbots. It seems like a problem that is similar to how without farming subsidies and regulations for farming practices, generally we would have food shortages because farmers would be pushed to do non-food cash crops, and mess up the land to serve short-term profits over sustainable long-term food production.
Considering Trump’s AI Plan and the Future It Portends – 24th July 2025 • The Tech Policy Press Podcast • Tech Policy Press Sarah Myers: “For the last several years as big tech was growing their infrastructure footprint, and especially in the last 2 or 3 years, states have had to contend with these gigantic multinational corporations coming down, buying huge swathes of land, demanding as much electricity as an entire city would use, as much water as a town would use, providing very few jobs, and then asking for tax breaks. And this has been happening all over the country. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, on and on. And with this order, Trump is basically clearing the way for these couple of megacorporations to come and do whatever they’d like with no public input, with no state oversight. As a result it’s not just that it’s undemocratic and people won’t have a say, and it’s not just that it’s a really poor use of public resources, and opportunities for states to be using all their excess electricity on an industry that’s creating very few jobs. But if states create proper guardrails you can see more innovation. We can see in this order, because they’re trying to throw out regulation, we’re going to get a less innovative tech sector in the U.S. because it’s the guardrails that allow companies to innovate in a positive direction. So for people impacted by data centers, it’s really not only going to raise their energy prices, and be a burden to their grid, but we’re also going to see just a less good tech sector.”
The Tech Policy Press Podcast is covering this, but we need this in local newspapers. We need this to break through to regular people this is going to impact, and in a bad way. Considering that the internet of fakes issue still hasn’t quite broken through to those outside of tracking this stuff, though that may be changing.