What if the money isn't there either? What if this AI thing lowers costs of everything it touches without generating meaningful financial returns itself?

Lowering costs is pretty valuable. People will pay for that. Everyone will pay for that. It may be that margins go razor thin but outside of running your own instance locally (which is increasingly viable for mid quality & requirements on modest HW) people will pay. I’m not surrounded by early adopter types at all abd there’s still a small but growing chunk paying $20/mo right now.

> It may be that margins go razor thin

That's what I mean. One example are PV panels, they are making energy production cheaper, so their producers should be good investment right? No they go bust all the time because prices are falling and margins are thin even if the volume grows. Of course the economies of scale here are different but still.