Big Tech's AI Push Is Costing More Than the Moon Landing(www.wsj.com)

37 pointsby 1vuio0pswjnm77 hours ago4 comments

ksec3 hours ago
One of the them is a one shot project and one of them is an infrastructure project being used by billions. It makes a nice headline but not a decent comparison.
On another note I wish there is some break down of where all the spendings goes to. GPU, CPU, RAM, Network, Switch, Cables, Power, Datacenter. The AI ecosystem and business is larger than Smartphone revolution kick started by Apple, but unlike Smartphone or consumer products these Hyperscaler and AI spending right now it is very opaque.
- trescenzi3 hours ago
  The moon landing led to a huge amount of infrastructure and inventions which now power the modern world. The moon landing was the marketing moment. The buildout of space tech and creation of industry was the actual goal.
  - somewhereoutth3 hours ago
    specifically to keep up with the Soviet Union. Sputnik 'concentrated a lot of minds' as they say.
zug_zug3 hours ago
Well… maybe making thinking machines mass produced is actually a more amazing project than the moon landing
Just need to make sure the wealth is spread equally
- JKCalhoun42 minutes ago
  > Well… maybe making thinking machines mass produced…
  Now if we could only make thinking machines. ;-)
  (Kind of surprised at all the negging of moon landings in this thread. Maybe I'm just of an older generation. At least one other post here points out all the spinoffs in regard to integrated circuits, etc. that came from the previous apace race.)
- dyauspitr22 minutes ago
  Spoiler alert: The wealth will not be spread equally until there is violence to demand it and that’s not going to happen because the “overlords” will make sure people have just enough to get by.
  To be fair, I don’t think distributing wealth equally even makes sense but we should definitely aim for distributing wealth in a way that most people can get through life with all their basic needs comfortably met.
- ratatatatata18 minutes ago
  [dead]
mock-possuman hour ago
Okay but I can actually use AI, whereas I’ve only seen pictures someone else going to the moon.
Also the US and the Soviet Union raced to get to the moon first, but the whole internet-connected world gets LLMs right now.
xhkkffbf2 hours ago
The moon landing was cool, but all we got were some neat imagery and some rocks. And we've even managed to lose some of the rocks because they were that special. At least with the AIs, we're getting something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_and_missing_Moon_rocks.