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Comment by throw94i4485 | Hacker News Reader

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You really can’t see that in the entire economy (particularly in such a large country) there isn’t anything else worth investing in and that basically everyone outside the small groups of people involved by in AI should what, just be starved out of the economy?

But that’s not how investing works? It’s money looking for returns not social good (that’s what taxes are for).

In that way AI is 1000% better than crypto or real estate speculation.

How would you differentiate between real estate investment versus speculation? Money goes towards building new housing, say, or buying some houses in a neighborhood to renovate, or a new apartment building, is that speculation or investment or both?

How is new housing supply to arrive?

I don’t think speculation was the right word. Scarcity exploitation (something current investment firms love doing) is better and building new housing is not that.

Investing is choosing how to put your money to work just like how you choose what vendor to give your business.

Here's a though experiment. If you could invest today in a company that will result in the destruction of your town (say a mining company) but you got 1% higher return compared to others, you're saying that's a perfect investment and would do it right away?

And if the answer is yes to the above, you can make that a lot darker if you want. See how far your belief goes.

> If you could invest today in a company that will result in the destruction of your town (say a mining company) but you got 1% higher return compared to others, you're saying that's a perfect investment and would do it right away?

If you look at how the money people behaved since always, that's exactly what would happen.

Economics works on larger scale than region or sector. I am sure that people that were copying books in the medieval ages would not have invested in the printing press, but someone else did and it was still good for society even if not for that specific group.

Society works by balancing the interests of various groups, and there will be people with different opinions than yours, including some you don't like.

That’s what regulations are for. If AI was known to have the destructive capabilities of strip mining, with real evidence of harm then it should be regulated and would have much lower returns regardless of your morals.

This isn’t an opportunity if Open AI is signing deals in a single year 2025 where it commits to pay a bigger number than the entire defense budget despite being deeply unprofitable. It’s a scam. The bubble makes it seem like it’s a good investment. And yes I do believe there are better investments outside the AI bubble.

“I do believe there are better investments outside the AI bubble.”

Then make them! I don’t have the confidence you have in this “scam”. For sure the valuations are inflated but I don’t think this infrastructure investment will be a waste.

Solar panels for example...

Not for the next 4 years, drill baby, drill

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