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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

If AGI was around the corner, they wouldn’t have to resort to what some consider a scummy way to make money. They’d would become the most valuable company on the planet, winning the whole game. Ads show you they don’t know what else to do but they desperately need money.

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This doesn’t answer the actual question: why they wouldn’t just do both?

There are costs to doing ads (e.g. it burns social/political capital that could be used to defuse scandals or slow down hostile legislation, it consumes some fraction of your employees’ work hours, it may discourage some new talent from joining).

You have AGI, why do you care about new talent? You have AGI to do the ads. You have AGI to pick the best ads.

Isn't that the pitch of AGI? Solve any problems?

Yes. Infinite low cost intelligence labor to replace those pesky humans!

Really reminds me of the economics of slavery. Best way for line to go up is the ultimate suppression and subjugation of labor!

Hypothetically can lead to society free to not waste their life on work, but pursue their passions. Most likely it’ll lead to plantation-style hungry-hungry-hippo ruling class taking the economy away from the rest of us

yes but if AGI is around the corner, with what would they make money then?

Selling this AGI to a state actor? OK - this seems realistic, but for how many billions then? 100b per year?

Thats what I meant.

> consider a scummy way to make money.

How should Chatgpt survive then?

Well, the obvious answer is none of these companies should.

ok but the real world does not work like that.

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