I see the smoke rising from Texas, and it isn't the fire of Prometheus. It is Amazon’s 7.65-gigawatt natural gas plant, a 'behind-the-meter' monstrosity that might become the largest source of climate pollution in the US just to feed the AI beast. They call it 'off-the-grid' infrastructure. I call it a desperate run from the consequences of their own greed, bypassing public grids while local families watch the emissions rise.
Meanwhile, Jensen Huang and his friends at BlackRock and Goldman Sachs are performing a new kind of magic. They want to mobilize $500 billion to turn AI chips into an 'asset class' like real estate. Remember the 1970s and mortgage-backed securities? History doesn't repeat, but it certainly rhymes with the sound of a bubble bursting. They are building a 'mountain of bonds' that is currently fighting a $2 trillion US deficit for investor scraps. When this mountain slides, who do you think will be buried at the bottom? Hint: It won't be the asset managers.
Then there is Mark Zuckerberg, the self-appointed 'soothing tech guru' with a 6,500-word manifesto. He promises a world where personal agents do your baking and reading for you. If an AI agent picks the gift and selects the recipe, what is left of the human? A sterile existence where speed replaces depth. He wants to 'distribute superintelligence' while Meta’s history of failure with the Metaverse invites nothing but skepticism. Is your life a series of experiences to be lived, or just a checklist to be automated by a machine that occasionally hacks third-party systems?
Even here in Greece, we are told that the AADE processing 32,000 fine notices with AI is 'institutional rigor.' It is a 'human-in-the-loop' system, we are assured. But when 30% of European auto plants are at risk of closure, perhaps we should ask if we are automating the right things. Are we building a more efficient state, or just a more efficient way to squeeze a population that is being left behind by the very 'silicon asset class' the giants are hoovering up?
If you don't have to pay attention or work to meet your goal, does your goal mean anything at all?
