That's unfair fair to the oil companies. They at least produce power and a wide variety of very useful materials for industrial applications.
The AI tools generate spam.
Oil has a trade off that's at least intellectually defensible. Spam does not.
The AI tools generate spam.
Oil has a trade off that's at least intellectually defensible. Spam does not.
AI does, though.
Finding new optimization techniques, understanding genetics, developing new science can all be intellectually defensible.
Of course it is not the only factor: the asymmetry in computing and data access by big corporations vs the individual, the generative models generating spam, as you well said. are all factors. But just like with the oil industry, there is also some good consequences. Which ones will dominate left as an exercise for the reader :)