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$6.2 billion which are prob to be invested in amazon to be invested in the startup to be invested in amazon, so I would not assume such an amount actually implies the size where this would be surprising.


More circular financing to keep the AI house of cards from falling?


Yeah since there isn't any actual real spend going into AI...


I don't think many of us are questioning the real spend going into AI - it's the return on that spend that we're wondering about.


There is pretty concrete published data that shows trends in less hiring for roles that are easily replaced by AI such as content writers and front-end developers

Personally I let go a developer I was using because I only had them around for front end work and now I'm much more productive just doing that with Claude Code directly

So the returns for the average business are largely due to less employee and contractors spending


> There is pretty concrete published data that shows trends in less hiring

Is there any concrete evidence that lower hiring is due to AI, and not due to some other factor - such as a stalling economy? I suspect AI growth is the only thing currently staving off a full-blown recession.


I alluded to it in my comment but let me make it even more clear

There is significantly less hiring for roles that AI can replace easily compared to roles that it can't replace easily

If there was decreased hiring simply because of the economy then why would it only be impacting certain job roles? Hmm... Mystery...


Have you given thought to the fact that there is an overlap between "jobs easily replaced by AI" and "jobs that are easy to consolidate into existing roles", or even "non-essential jobs"?


> jobs that are easy to consolidate into existing roles

I think you are on to something here. AI is what gives people the ability to consolidate many roles into one.

Like in my example, when I fired my front-end developer, I now can easily do that task.

Or, a marketing generalist can now create blog posts using ChatGPT instead of needing to also have a content writer

To your point about "non-essential": "Front-end development" is not necessarily something I would consider non-essential, but maybe "front-end developer" is now. Something to think about


If you're vibe coding a front end, you're going to run into issues with technical debt eventually, so that's a very short sighted way to handle things.

Or if you do have the technical skill for front-end work, you could have done it without the AI.

I do doubt this, however, because AI assisted programming does not increase productivity for skilled workers as much according to studies.


I've been programming for well over a decade, but as a founder I wear many different hats so I had a front end developer to help take some of the load off.

But AI coding got to the point where, for me personally, it took less of my own time and effort to work directly with the AI (Claude Code) to do the front-end tasks required compared to working with the developer, reviewing their code, etc.

I'm not "vibe coding" or adding technical debt.

> you could have done it without the AI.

Technically anyone could do anything, but there are finite things in this world like the number of hours in a day lol

> according to studies.

Great, I don't care about the "studies". I'm talking about how things work for me personally in the real world and giving a concrete example of how AI spend has replaced an employee but you are welcome to ignore that

Also, it should be noted that in studies, the conclusions are typically based on an average or median, so some people will see a benefit, and some people won't... and that will be based on a number of factors


There is money going in, but not as much as what these valuations and investments imply. The numbers are inflated and that's common knowledge by this point.


> that's common knowledge by this point.

No it's not. Go short the AI companies though if that's what you think


The circular deals going on are documented. There is no point in discussing if this happens or not. The numbers just cannot be added up.

Now if things will fail, how and when is a different discussion.


Two things can be true

Yes there are circular deals going

Yes there is actual underlying spending from the average consumer and business that makes these valuations largely realistic




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