Putting the Cart Before the AI

A free-software developer argues that the current LLM boom is an obvious bubble, citing OpenAI's finances and Microsoft's pullback on data centre plans, and recounts personal experiences with generative AI tools ranging from disastrous to merely okay. He weighs the technology's benefits against its monetary, environmental and social harms, including worker displacement, misinformation, security problems and the concentration of power in a few corporations. He concludes that once the venture capital subsidy ends, we should return to asking what the best tool for a job is rather than how to solve it with AI.