Author Topic: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else  (Read 352 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« on: February 08, 2026, 05:35:54 pm »
MSN  by Shira Ovide 2/7/2026

 Electricians are getting harder to find, and some construction projects are on hold. Smartphones are expected to get pricier for potentially years to come. And promising innovations are being starved of investment funding.

Those are just some of the domino effects from the technology industry’s insatiable spending on artificial intelligence, which is diverting resources and attention from other sectors of the economy.

 Five leading public AI companies are collectively on track to spend about $700 billion this year on big-ticket projects, as they splurge on building and outfitting data centers stuffed with powerful computer chips to turbocharge AI calculations. That outlay by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Oracle will nearly double what they spent in 2025 and be equal to three-quarters of the recent annual budget for the U.S. military. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Tech companies say that spending or borrowing a fortune to develop AI is already delivering higher revenue from businesses and consumers eager to use the technology. But critics worry that the up-front costs to develop AI have become so mammoth that the investment can possibly pay off only if AI reshapes life, work and the economy in a way that uncorks massive new profits for these technology firms.

 JPMorgan calculated last fall that the tech industry must collect an extra $650 billion in revenue every year — three times the annual revenue of AI chip giant Nvidia — to earn a reasonable investment return. That marker is probably even higher now because AI spending has increased.

OpenAI, which unleashed the nation’s AI mania with the public debut of ChatGPT in late 2022, expects to lose more than $100 billion through the end of the decade, the technology news publication the Information reported in September. (The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

It won’t be clear for some time whether AI will continue improving as quickly as it has in the past few years, and makes people and business much more productive. What is clear is that every dollar spent now on its development raises both the potential reward and the risks for its backers.

More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ar-AA1VRXni

Offline Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2026, 06:00:58 pm »
Bullshit.

Online DB

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2026, 06:20:42 pm »
Bullshit.

Memory shortages right now are due to AI sucking it all up. Buying a PC with a lot of memory is much more expensive than it was a year ago.
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Offline rustynail

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2026, 06:41:25 pm »
The 'supply chain' is broken again?

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2026, 07:33:10 pm »
Seems like a lot of pain for something that, so far, has just been a pain in the arse.

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Offline Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2026, 07:36:33 pm »
Memory shortages right now are due to AI sucking it all up. Buying a PC with a lot of memory is much more expensive than it was a year ago.

My bullshit was in response to the AI boom being huge, not necessarily on other aspects like memory usage. I mean, i just think it's 90% hype.

Online roamer_1

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2026, 07:50:08 pm »
Seems like a lot of pain for something that, so far, has just been a pain in the arse.

(Move that *%&^&** pop-up! I'm trying to get some work done here!)

I have to wonder how much of it is shiny sh*t and band wagon.
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Offline MeganC

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2026, 08:13:08 pm »
My bullshit was in response to the AI boom being huge, not necessarily on other aspects like memory usage. I mean, i just think it's 90% hype.

I agree AI is overhyped. However it is useful for parsing large tranches of data.
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Offline Sighlass

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2026, 08:29:45 pm »
To me AI is just a large portion of real-estate taking the top of the search engine and all it does is steal liberal wikipedia answers.
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Online roamer_1

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2026, 09:46:12 pm »
To me AI is just a large portion of real-estate taking the top of the search engine and all it does is steal liberal wikipedia answers.

I ain't exactly a fan. Though I can tell you a story.

Because of my recent trials, I can assuage the worries of my family by wearing a smart watch that constantly monitors my pulse and pressure and whatnot.

I think I previously related the time I was sleeping and my chair gave out (as happens to me), wherein I went over backwards, waking up flailing and falling, and winding up in a monkey knot in the bicycle rack position behind my chair... But in the course of those gymnastics, my urine collection bag did not come with me, albeit its connection to my catheter notwithstanding (or withstanding, as in this case). So there I was... monkey knot, bicycle rack, catheter line stretched to a twang in the key of high G... So if ever there was a time to call for help, that was it, so I got on my trusty watch - the only form of communication that is on me at night... And it didn't work. Bluetooth th the phone had failed, as it was wont to do, most all of the time.

Everything turned out alright, and I was fine in a few days. The point being the watch that failed, at what to me, was a highly critical moment... That was a Fitbit III... and it hit the garbage can that very day.

Anyhow, I told you that story to tell you this story:

So I am without a smartwatch, and my fam is freaking out. Dunno what I am doing in this particular genre, so I hop on with Google's Gemini AI in conversational mode. Me and her beat the issue up, considering the parameters and concerns - The reason I needed the watch, that I needed it for disability and health concerns, That I needed on-wrist calling, that I needed absolutely bulletproof bluetooth that would tell me if it failed. And of course, bang for buck, because I am poor as a church mouse these days... All the things.

Anyhow, we beat it up, just like if we was sitting on the porch, And she directed me to the Samsung Watch6 as being the best watch for me.

I followed that advice, did a wee bit of checking on my own, and found one reconditioned by the factory for what I would have had to pay for a next gen fitbit.

I have not been dissatisfied with that outcome. As expected, the only real complaint is going to be batt life... That Watch6 is a hog. True enough, though even with that, if I push it, with my normal use, it will go about 3 days. Not that it ever does. I worked it into my morning routine, and it is on the charger while I have my breakfast every day.

Anyhow, I mean to say I was satisfied with the assistance that the AI provided in that case.  happy77 :cool: :beer:
« Last Edit: February 08, 2026, 09:47:46 pm by roamer_1 »

Offline Wingnut

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2026, 09:57:19 pm »
AI is for Idiots.  And the world is full of them.  All I want to know is where John Connor is. 
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Offline Idiot

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2026, 10:41:32 pm »
AI seems to be working quite well.  I pay $20 a month or so for ChatGPT and it's well worth it.  We do a lot of similar forms each month and AI will fill it all out for us, saving hours worth of time.  I've even had it help with some mapping projects and it was eye opening.  Any profession that does repetitive things may end up with downsizing.  Lawyers, accountants, etc. AI is perfect for that.

Offline Free Vulcan

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2026, 10:56:35 pm »
I use Grok for going out to research and collect info on a topic that would take me hours or days. That's pretty much it.

I see ads now for over-40 people on how to use AI to 'know' things. It just makes me laugh. Why would I want to use something that's stupider than I am?
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Offline catfish1957

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #13 on: February 09, 2026, 01:15:01 pm »
AI?

 :yawn2:

Wake me when I can buy one of Musk's Optimus (post de-bugged) robots is available, and cooking, cleaning, etc, is taken care of.
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Offline Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else
« Reply #14 on: February 09, 2026, 01:21:13 pm »
AI?

 :yawn2:

Wake me when I can buy one of Musk's Optimus (post de-bugged) robots is available, and cooking, cleaning, etc, is taken care of.

They show the robots doing flips and all that. Well yay, but let me know when they can do actual real work.

Offline Elderberry

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Alphabet calls out new AI-related risks, as it taps debt market to fund build-out

CNBC by Jennifer Elias 3/9/2026

Key Points

•   Alphabet has added new AI risks to its annual report, including a potential impact on advertising.

•   The company also noted risks of “large, long-duration commercial” contracts for AI infrastructure.

•   Alphabet is planning to raise $20 billion from a bond sale, including a 100-year bond, according to people familiar with the matter.

As Alphabet

returns to the debt market to fund its artificial intelligence build-out, the company is acknowledging new risks tied to the rise of AI and its hefty investments in infrastructure.

In its annual financial report late last week, the Google parent highlighted the potential impact of AI on the company’s core advertising business and the possibility of ending up with “excess capacity” from its costly commitments.

“To meet the compute capacity demands of AI training and inference, as well as traditional cloud computing services, we are entering into significant leasing arrangements with third party operators, which may increase costs and operational complexity,” the company stated in the filing with the SEC. Large commercial agreements could also increase “liabilities and obligations in the event of nonperformance by us, our counterparties, or vendors,” Alphabet said.

One of the headline numbers in Alphabet’s earnings report was $185 billion, representing the high end of what the company says it may shell out in capital expenditures this year, more than double its 2025 capex.

More: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/09/alphabet-highlights-new-ai-related-risks-in-tapping-debt-market.html

Offline deb

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They show the robots doing flips and all that. Well yay, but let me know when they can do actual real work.

Pretty sure watching The Jetsons has left me with unfulfilled expectations regarding robots.
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Offline Wingnut

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Pretty sure watching The Jetsons has left me with unfulfilled expectations regarding robots.

Add to that The three-hour workweek at Spacely Sprockets and flying cars....
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