u/CyberSmith31337

There's been a lot of speculation over the past few years about whether or not AI would ever be able to pay for itself. Some of the loudest critics (Ed Zitron, Eli the Tech Guy, David Gerrard) have been repeating these same talking points for over a year; "AI will never be profitable." This comes on the heels of the extreme valuations being assigned to companies which, thus far, have not proven to be even remotely close to their self-declared worthiness.

The evidence is plentiful. Numerous roadblocks have emerged. Data center construction is way, way behind schedule across the country; newfound resistance has popped up all across the countries. There are multiple instances of local government officials bypassing the will of their voters, and stealth-approving the construction of sites against their constituents desires. Oracle has been through multiple rounds of layoffs, with multiple rounds more to go this year. Softbank can't get anymore credit-worthiness to assist with pumping up the OpenAI IPO, which failed to justify it's self-proclaimed $1,000,000,000,000.00 valuation. The SpaceX IPO pumped, and then dumped significantly within 10 days of it going live. The vast majority of purchasing within the sector is being propped up by around 2% of the entire market (mainly other technology companies) and hasn't demonstrated meaningful traction in their consumer base. Even with ads being injected into the service, something that was once joked about as a last-ditch effort to discover profitability, hasn't put a dent into the costs of these companies. There's the depreciation problem, wherein many of the data centers (which are behind schedule already) have pre-purchased hardware that will not be relevant by the time the data centers are constructed, resulting in a hardware glut of obsolescence on the books. Companies like Meta and SpaceX are already selling their excess compute to 2 main companies, Anthropic and AI, due to a lack of demand from other customers.

Additionally, AI has started being used for more and more nefarious purposes. It's been used to hacking people's accounts, and for hacking into other websites backends. There are reports of it being used to help synthesize new viruses, and speculation that it has been used for the purpose of engineering new bioweapons. The whole "Hugging Face" incident shows that even the most "in-control" firms don't actually know how to align their technology meaningfully. We've seen multiple resignations from multiple people at the main companies stating that the safety risks of continuing to work on the technology outweigh the benefits. ...and yet all of this pales in comparison to the media blitz we're seeing, right now, by the tech oligarchs and founders. The very same people who took on literal trillions of dollars of debt, promising the moon, a revolutionized society, an autonomous world, are now starting to walk back their commitments. Suddenly, the same group that demanded we be allowed to go full-throttle into the "future" are asking for the world to slow down; suddenly, the same people who spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying against regulatory efforts are now demanding that the world acquiesce to their demands. OpenAI suddenly can't launch their IPO, because they can't get the funding to do so. Their failure would be catastrophic for the entire field, which is why NVIDIA had to step in and back-stop their financing to ensure that the whole sector didn't come crashing down. As a lender of a last resort, NVIDIA is now propping up an entire sector that has failed to realize its own ambitions. Make no mistake; all these stories coming out are not accidental. These are deliberate efforts to sway public opinion, to convince the average American (who already detest AI) that it is in their best interest to pump the brakes and put up safeguards. The oligarchs and these tech companies are now positioning for a bailout from the taxpayers; they are suggesting that it is in the public's best interest (something that none of these people have ever once considered since they were born) to slow down; they will use this excuse as framework to get a government bailout. Something along the lines of "We're willing to slow down our development and make AI more safe, but we'll need the government to cover the costs and the risks associated with slowing down."

The reasons are multiple. For starters, debts are coming due, and no one has the money to pay their bills. The forecasts for AI companies were projecting hundreds of billions of dollars per quarter, starting in 2027, and are nowhere near that reality. China has also benefitted from emulating and pirating the "frontier models", and has started offering substantially cheaper alternatives than the proposed high-cost models presented by the United States. The result is a one-two punch; the frontier companies are no longer developing at a pace that justifies their valuations and investment, and the competition is further undercutting the alleged value of the frontier models by offering consumer-friendly alternatives at a fraction of the price. Private equity has been bleeding out from all the overinvestment in the sector, with numerous articles covering how AI isn't profitable because of its business model, but because of the endless slew of investment going into it. Essentially, private equity is the profit for these companies.

The most damning evidence of all comes most recently Dario Amodei and previously from Sam Altman. Sam Altman wanted to sell a stake in OpenAI to the government; essentially trading a small, insignificant stake in the company in exchange for access to federal tax dollars. Privatizing the gains, and socializing their losses. Now, Dario Amodei has proposed selling access to Anthropic's models for a 50% discount; once again attempting to subsidize their losses by packaging their failure as an opportunity. A key phrasing in their proposals: if they had to sell, they would consider selling their services to other governments; not specifically the US government. In other words, the companies whose entire business model has been stealing everyone's work via scraping, who has enabled their plugins to access sensitive government data, who have openly admitted to their models accessing other websites, services, and platforms without permission to conduct data breaches, are now softly threatening the US government to buy from them, lest they take their business elsewhere. They are laying this groundwork right now, and deliberately, because the mid-terms are around the corner. They are trying to gauge whether or not the government will come to the rescue (very likely, the current administration are completely incompetent morons) because I believe they know that the Democrats will not provide a bailout to this cohort.

It is my firm belief that we'll see the framework for this bailout materialize by no later than March 30, 2027. That date will provide a substantially clearer picture as to how the mid-terms shook out, as well as to further highlight how behind the curve both Anthropic and OpenAI are in terms of revenue crunch. It will be a concentrated push of fear-mongering and doom-saying over the next 6 months. We'll see major media networks push the narrative, we're already seeing rivals like Musk and Altman and Amodei come together to talk about how they all acknowledge and recognize the "risks" of AI. Simultaneously, Jensen Huang is already lying about how OpenAI achieved AGI, which was the alleged selling point of this entire circus, and yet now that they've supposedly unearthed it, they don't want it anymore? The entire situation is a disgusting level of collusion by all the tech magnates, and it is their goal to fleece the American public to enrich themselves and hedge all risks resulting from their irresponsible spending sprees over the last 3 years.

Hello,

My friend group of 6M are heading down for the first week of September. we do an annual tradition of meeting up once a year. Last year we discovered Myrtle, loved it so much that we decided to make it *the* spot instead of *a* spot. Last year was a blast; we saw Medieval Times, gorged on all the food we could, played all around North Myrtle, hit Thee Dollhouse, etc. It was great!

This year, we were hoping to meet some people and make some friends, since we plan on coming back every year at this time. 3/6 are married, 3/6 are single; it’d be neat to meet some folks who are fine with that split. Additionally, the single guys in the group were wondering if there’s a good spot/etiquette for meeting other singles in the area; is Tinder/Hinge/Bumble active or worth setting up in advance?

Lastly, we really wanted to find some more active things to do this year. Wondering if there’s a good spot for renting jetskis? I have also heard that Broadway at the Beach is a good time. Any other spots you might recommend?

Other than that, it’ll be day drinking, lounging, gaming, and other extra curriculars. Feel free to shoot a DM if you prefer!

I want to start by saying I understand what they were going for; they were clearly trying to create a system that would reduce "cheesing" by using superstar players to 1-trick other teams. I get it, really I do.

That being said, whomever the fuck architected this system has never played a sport before in their life, and apparently doesn't watch sports either. Every single game, my starting running back is sitting on the bench by the end of the 1st quarter. For some reason, my second string HB can play 3 quarters, get 20 touches, and be totally fine, but my first string HB gets tackled twice and is out for the game (despite no injury). I was simming my franchise, and in absolute disbelief when I looked at my teams stats. Mendoza with 24 throws for 186 yards by game 8, Ashton Jeanty with 29 carries for 131 yards by game 8. My starters are basically never in the game. This is not how professional sports work.

I've tried playing with the sliders, tweaking auto-subs, reducing wear frequency, but the reality is that the system is just that poorly conceived that it can't be used. A halfback is GOING to get tackled multiple times a game; that doesn't mean he's a god damned maimed war veteran. After reviewing how badly wear and tear botched rookies (most of them played less than 60 snaps by mid-season) I just had to turn it off. It's completely unusable.

I'm specifically looking for a mod that will make it so that my vassals, especially when those vassals are my heirs, will actually bother to ask for my help in the event of a rebellion.

I am absolutely fucking exhausted of my mighty bloodlines being wiped out by 700 peasants because the game doesn't feel like it's worth being notified that my children are about to lose to a peasant rebellion, when I could so easily deploy my 12,000 men to wipe them out in 5 seconds. Why are my children, my allies, and my heirs too stupid to simply go "Hey father, I could use your help so that my first-born and the heir to the dynasty doesn't get wiped out by some random locals! Could you please send a small contingent to assist me?"

There has to be a mod for this, right?

Topic.

I typically play TFT on my phone or my iPad; neither of which allow me to log-in anymore. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times, and it doesn't do anything. I can log in with the credentials via my browser, and my PC, but I can't use either of my mobile devices to log in. Instead I just get the "Something went wrong; please try again." message, which resets me back to the log-in screen.

Is the iOs version of the game just totally broken?

I'm not sure I understand the mechanical nature of how this worked. Can someone explain this? Is it just that these shares didn't actually move today? Was it a gigantic "Fuck you" against short sellers? I see it had more volume than anything else on the market; was this just institutions buying everything they could immediately, thus preserving the price? I'm looking for someone who can explain how unlocking shares doesn't dilute price, because I thought I understood how this worked, but I clearly don't.

Edit: No guys, I didn’t place any bets. I’m mostly here to learn, and to marvel at people who share their tremendous gains and losses.

I breezed through the Witcher 1; I generally enjoyed the story a LOT, even though I found the combat absolutely dreadful. I thought to myself "Well at least I'm done with that forever; onwards to the Witcher 2!"

I feel like I'm losing my mind though. I have seen endless praise for this franchise over the years, and even though I'm only in early Flotsam, I just cannot believe how absolutely dreadful this game is to play (Note: I am on a controller).

The combat somehow got worse from the first one. The lock-on consistently fails. Enemies don't seem to take damage sometimes if you aren't locked onto them. The map is pretty useless. The random 1-shots that happen when you're transitioning out of an execution (because your back is turned, even though you don't have camera control). Inventory management and skill switching feels sluggish, and maybe even lagged?

Is this going to be the experience? I knew I had a lot of ground to cover to get to the Witcher 3, but JESUS CHRIST this combat system feels abysmal in every sense. I feel like I've never heard anything but praise about this game, and yet my experience with it so far is absolute dread and misery. Please tell me this is just the early game and that this gets better.

EDIT: Sorry everyone, I tried to push through this, but the gameplay and combat are just unacceptably awful. I'm going to just uninstall; I simply cannot force myself to be this bored for a 30 hour experience.

Please don’t provide any new season spoilers; just starting season 7!

I just finished episode 1, and oh my god, I felt so much joy in seeing Jamie finally, *FINALLY* lean in to the dark side. So so so many times in this show have they been wronged, fucked over, betrayed, deceived, used, screwed, etc, and to finally see Jamie not just come up with a reason to not lean in to his nature… I just cannot believe how ecstatic I was.

>!Everything about the last few minutes of the episode brought me so much joy. The lighting. The tense monologue. The calculated plot of vengeance against Mr Brown’s entire family. The way he countered every point Mr Brown made so eloquently (“I am also a violent man.” Made me light up with glee) Watching that overconfident, sniveling coward that is Mr Brown eye the gun, and then try to lecture Jamie on morality… it was poetry in motion. The fade to black at the end let my imagination fill in the lines the way I wanted to, without limiting the sadistic fantasy of vengeance against such terrible bastard of a man. I just hope this is a preview of what to expect from Season 7; it has completely reinvigorated my joy for the series!!<

today on LinkedIn there has been a slew of sudden announcements of resignations and exits from the company. the timing of all of these suggests that there are forced exits taking place. A few friends of mine who work there are suggesting these are voluntary buyouts, expected to precede another wave of mass layoffs later this year. Unconfirmed via official channels on the latter part, but seems likely.

I was wondering if Brianna ever becomes less insufferable? This season in particular, despite my profound enjoyment of the coverage of the area (the Blue Ridge mountains and the colonial american setting) I’ve been pretty repulsed by the shift of attention away from Claire and Jamie into Brianna and Roger.

>!i *strongly* dislike their entire story. Their romance is awful, and feels manufactured and inauthentic. I dislike the actress and how utterly entitled, clueless, and bossy she is at all times. When she just starts insulting everyone and slapping them in the face, I just was so disgusted. She accepts no responsibility for the fact that she told him to leave in the first place, and just seems to constantly be the victim at all times. Roger is also just a dreadful person, and his actor also is about as charismatic as a bag of wet gym clothes.!<

Is this something that is going to continue in future seasons of the show? I am about to close out the 4th season, and while I have genuinely enjoyed the majority of the entire show… I just don’t know if I want to see more of those characters and their story.

Hello fellow millennials,

I’m writing to see if this is just a case of time catching up to me, bad luck, or if it is indeed just a *”Welcome to being in your 40’s, bitch.”* arriving.

I have been in generally solid health most of my life. I played sports when I was younger all the way through college, have been physically active 5+ days a week for all but 2 years of my life (notably COVID-era). I can’t say I ate the best; I was raised on fast food by my parents, and didn’t come from a lot of money. Nutrition was something I only started taking seriously when I got out on my own in my late 20’s, and had a good enough job to live responsibly. The biggest “tax” I have really had to pay over the years has been the dentist, but that is admittedly my own fault. Physical damages to my teeth from sports (football injuries, wrestling injuries) as well as a penchant for soda in my youth did me no favors. Regardless, that was over 20 years ago.

Despite working out 7 days a week for 2 hours a day for the past 5 years… my health seems to be worse than it has ever been. Some of these sins are just penance for the past. Degenerative disc disease, arthritis, etc; can’t do anything about those now. But **MAN….** ever since 40? It has been hell. One major medical expenditure after another. Almost all of them seem to stem from gut-related problems, despite having none for the first 40 years of life. They say when it rains, it pours, but in the last year, I’ve had to spend well over $65,000 of my savings on issue after issue. Random prostate problems, random colon dysfunction, random UTI’s, hematuria, digestive issues, fissures, polyps, and plenty of other things. I’ve done all the things I’ve needed to; screening, treatment, preventative care. Every scan has come back neutral, every test looks normal. These procedures add up, and quickly. $1600 here, $700 there, etc etc.

In the past 20 years, I may have spent a total of $5,000 on healthcare related expenses. I simply could not have ever anticipated this type of fluctuation. I do not know why this is happening, and neither do they. There are no conclusive red flags or causes that suggest it is user error, nor do I live somewhere that has tainted water, radiation, chemical spills/plants, etc.

Have any of you gone through this sort of abrupt cycle? How did you address it? Do I just need to start budgeting $20k/yr or something now that I am closer to 50 than 40? How did you stay positive when it seemed like nothing but bad news every time you went to the doctor?

EDIT: I had no health insurance for the first quarter of the year; that is why everything was out-of-pocket. It was a terribly stupid decision to skip out on it, but I had no expectation that anything would go wrong. Just wanted to clarify this because it has been asked multiple times.

Disclaimer: I am only closing in on the end of the first season.

That being said, this show is an absolute delight. The music is fantastic, I really enjoy how much I am learning about the history of the Scots and the British, and the characters are excellent.

This is also one of the most interesting female protagonists I have ever seen in a tv show. She is so well-written, and her constant dilemma of revealing how much more she knows vs. concealing her knowledge to avoid offending those around her is fantastic.

i’ll probably write a more complete review as I progress, but I wanted to put this on everyone’s radar. It is one of the most charming, graphic, lighthearted-yet-serious shows I have seen all year.

I wasn’t sure where else to ask this, so please forgive me if I am not using this sub correctly.

I am looking to get a sandwich press as a luxury for the home. I don’t have any experience really, with using these presses. Google provides a bunch of sponsored recommendations, but I actually would prefer to hear from people who use these devices at-scale, about which brand you like/trust/use as well as how long you have been using that particular one.

Also, happy to hear horror stories about brands you would recommend avoiding for whatever reasons (bad service, breaks often, shitty customer service from manfuacturer, etc)

I would likely be using this 3x a day, maybe even more due to my living situation presently.

Preface:

I was recently chatting with some friends about computer prices and how absurd they have become as a result of the AI hype bubble. One of the regular channels we all view has been "GamersNexus" on Youtube, who often have long-form expositions and interviews within that sector, and have regularly covered the rapid increase in pricing in the hardware market over the past 2 years. One of the topics that they covered is the shift in the mentality within the hardware industry that they no longer actually need to sell PC components and hardware to the entirety of the consumer class; they can make more money selling exclusively to the AI data centers and the largest monopolies in the country. They can charge higher, fixed prices, sell full stock in advance via guarantees and commitments on spend, and if anyone tries to negotiate they can simply push that vendor to the back of the line. The result is that they no longer have to tailor their hardware for the average consumer's use, can reduce shipping costs, and maintain profitability. Recently, NVIDIA has taken this even further, and started suggesting selling the GPUs to "agentic AI" directly; in other words, providing computers for AI agents to operate and run on behalf of the data centers. This represents an additional step away from selling to the retail consumer, opting instead for an AI customer.

Which brings me to this current thought....

Current context:

We are staring down an imminent energy crisis. It is no longer a matter of "if", it is a matter of "when". Depending on who you ask, we're going to see this in a matter of months. Don't take my word for it; take theirs:

Source 1: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-ceo-says-physical-shortages-oil-supply-begin-appearing-2026-05-04/

Source 2: https://www.agcc.co.uk/news-article/shell-ceo-warns-of-global-energy-crisis-crisis-as-middle-east-conflict-escalates

Source 3: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2026/05/01/the-world-is-weeks-away-from-rationing-oil-demand-as-prices-rise-eric-nuttall/

Source 4: https://ieefa.org/resources/four-reasons-largest-energy-crisis-record-has-been-held-bay-and-why-theres-pain-come

Scenario:

...so this got me thinking. What would happen if, as the energy crisis arrives, if the oil and gas companies simply follow NVIDIA's lead, and opt to stop selling to the consumer class entirely, or in an extremely limited capacity? There can be no doubt that, should a true energy crisis arrive, that fuel rationing will take place. The question of "Well who gets access to that fuel first?" comes to mind. In historic energy crises, the government usually takes the majority of the oil. This has largely been to insure that critical infrastructure and branches like the military are able to maintain full functionality. In the past, when other wars have taken place, the government has also stepped in to regulate fuel rationing (such as WWII) and keep the peace and public order. In my opinion, the key difference between the past and the present is that the government was run by more competent people, and an administration that didn't openly have contempt for the public it allegedly governs. Additionally, the current administration in America has demonstrated a deep comfort with flagrantly lying to the public, engaging in visible corruption, and crony capitalism practices that have enriched the oligarchy in real time. We have also observed a willingness to promote exceptional cruelty by the current administration, as has been observed via things like the strangulation of energy access to Cuba, the supported bombings and military strikes in Gaza, and the multiple incidents associated with destroying migrants vessels via air strikes and missile strikes off our shores.

Furthermore, the current AI cycle has enormous energy and resource demands; eclipsing that of any technology that has ever existed before it. We are staring down an "innovation" that requires an exorbitant amount of two of the most scarce resources on the planet; energy, and water. There are numerous, well-documented reports about the negative impacts of data centers on the economy, the environment, and even the health of people nearby these facilities. Some basic sources to support these statements:

Source 1: https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/post/the-dangers-of-data-centers

Source 2: https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/analyzing-air-pollution-health-economic-risks-from-ai-data-centers/

Source 3: https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-center-growth-impacts

Source 4: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2025/11/21/california-data-center-health-impacts-tripled-4-years

Source 5: https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2025/10/02/construction-and-consequences-the-human-impacts-of-artificial-intelligence-data-centers/

Additional factors:

Now, we mix in this energy crisis + the AI hype cycle with the environmental challenge. Much of America is experiencing significant drought. We are approaching what scientists have been describing as a "Godzilla El Nino", which is likely to lead to some of the highest temperatures we have ever seen in the country's history. This coming along during the summer time, in historic drought conditions, in a time where people will be using more energy than ever before to keep their homes cool, seems like a catastrophic mix. There are multiple cities and counties already rationing water and placing restrictions on its citizens. Yet, despite these restrictions being in place on the consumers and the residents of these areas, no such restrictions are being enforced upon data centers or commercial/industrial magnates. There seems to be a wanton disregard for the uneven distribution and access to these resources by the government, who seems not only comfortable, but enthusiastic to enable these mega corporations to have unfettered utilization of both energy and water at a discount while the residents most-impacted by these shortages are forced to subsidize and pay more so that these data centers can pay less, if at all, for these resources.

Additionally, we also just saw the SpaceX IPO create the world's first paper-trillionaire, which will signify that one person has more purchasing power than entire nations across the world. The lack of meaningful taxation and oversight here suggests that businesses consider this sort of monopolization effect "ideal", as it allows them to purchase services from a single vendor rather than a distributed market. On top of this, we have other IPOs coming up soon, including the OpenAi and Anthropic IPOs. This paints the picture of the USA becoming a "mono-economy", where the only industry we choose to support is AI/compute power, despite minimal tangible benefits and virtually zero wealth distribution beyond a handful of individuals.

So I ask the question... are we staring down a scenario where, through a corrupt and/or incompetent government, where we will see a scenario where the consumer class is cut out of the economy entirely? Could we see the USA decide to simply stop selling energy and water at scale, instead siphoning what remains of it to a handful of corporate interests in the name of profit margins? If so, how would that impact the average American? All the cars on the road without fuel, minimal infrastructure to support civilians who almost always have no other way to commute to work, housing without cooling in the hottest temperatures ever recorded, all whilst there is no rain...

Has anyone else considered that this might be the strategy going forward?