Sign up to see the future, today<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech<\/p>\n
By now, it\u2019s clear that the only way the tech industry can justify the cost of AI is if it replaces vast swaths of the human workforce with machines that run 24\/7. <\/p>\n
The bad news is that this situation has created a world-historic financial market that, by some metrics, is looking worse than the run-up to the Great Depression<\/a>. The good news is that this future of an AI takeover is looking increasingly unlikely<\/a>, at least at the industry\u2019s current pace, a fact which is now dawning on some of the biggest rubes and dupes in the corporate world.<\/p>\n According to a new survey from \u201cBig Four\u201d accounting firm KPMG, a significant number of corporate executives are reeling from sticker shock<\/a> over new usage-based AI pricing schemes. Though enterprises could once count on AI companies to subsidize the price of large language models via flat-rate contracts<\/a>, that\u2019s no longer a given, as the rising cost<\/a> of computational power forces the entire tech sector into a defensive posture.<\/p>\n The KPMG report, initially flagged by the Register<\/a>, surveyed 2,145 senior execs across 20 countries, finding that an astonishing 29 percent of them had no idea where the growing costs associated with AI were coming from.<\/p>\n A further third confessed that their own cluelessness about AI economics was a barrier to successfully deploying AI in the workplace, the Register notes.<\/p>\n \u201cAs usage-based pricing models become more common, many organizations are still building the capabilities required to forecast, monitor, and manage AI spending effectively,\u201d the report authors write. Translation: one third of execs had no plan for how to actually use AI productively, a fact which is becoming increasingly clear now that the meter is running.<\/p>\n The finding underscores what many workers forced to use AI tools on the job have come to suspect: that an alarming number of corporate leaders treat AI as a plug-and-play solution<\/a> for lowering overheard without understanding the how of it all, a kind of magical thinking entirely divorced from practical reality.<\/p>\n On the same token, it\u2019s important not to lose sight of the fact that AI \u2014 or more accurately, the myth surrounding it \u2014 is currently being deployed across the world as a tool to discipline labor<\/a>, to force workers into a weaker position when it comes to wage negotiations, benefits, and overall stability.<\/p>\n Whether used as an excuse to strap surveillance cameras to factory workers\u2019 heads<\/a> or as a justification for widespread layoffs<\/a>, execs don\u2019t need to a PhD in machine learning to know that AI in its current, error-prone form is mainly good for keeping the worker bees in line.<\/p>\n Again, whether AI will ever perform on the level required to pay off the billions of dollars in bills would take a miracle breakthrough<\/a>. But if the goal is short-term financial gains fueled by lower overhead costs paid for by the working class, AI doesn\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n