News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by johnnyanmac on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @09:11PM (#46440573)
It did. I question the issue of "what problem am I trying to solve" with AI, though. Transportation across a huge swath of land had a clear problem space, and trains offered a very clear solution; created dedicated railing and you can transport 100x the resources at 10x the speed of a horseman (and I'm probably underselling these gains). In times where trekking across a continent took months, the efficiencies in communication and supply lines are immediately clear.

AI feels like a solution looking for a problem. Especially with 90% of consumer facing products. Were people asking for better chatbots, or to quickly deepfake some video scene? I think the bubble popping will re-reveal some incredible backend tools in tech, medical, and (eventually) robotics. But I don't think this is otherwise solving the problems they marketed on.

Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by heavyset_go on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @10:09PM (#46440850)
> AI feels like a solution looking for a problem.

The problem is increasing profits by replacing paid labor with something "good enough".

Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by johnnyanmac on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @10:54PM (#46441085)
Doesn't sound like a very profitable problem to solve. At least, not in the long term (which no one orchestrating this is thinking in).
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by heavyset_go on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @11:08PM (#46441163)
Long term is feudalism, the short term is how we get there.
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by johnnyanmac on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @11:37PM (#46441319)
Well I wish them the worst of luck. Those doing this need to go back to the 1880s and see how that ended long term.
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by MangoToupe on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @10:21PM (#46440915)
This is a use case that hasn't yet been proven out, though. "Good enough" for an executive may not be "good enough" to keep the company solvent, and there's no shortage of private equity morons who have no understanding of their own assets.
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by heavyset_go on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @11:07PM (#46441158)
I agree, but it's the bet they're making. You don't end up with trillions in investment and valuations with chatbots and meme video generators.
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by kolinko on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @02:41AM (#46442212)
Isn’t this what industrialisation was always about?
Re:OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble question... by heavyset_go on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @06:50PM (#46449615)
Yes, and everything around us was replaced by something "good enough" from a factory unless you paid for real craftsmanship.