Eve, here. Normally, I don’t have the freedom to reprint other writers’ posts in their entirety. But I believe that AI guru Gary Marcus has issued a call to action that he wants to spread as widely as possible. Marcus has warned that AI companies with no hope of achieving a decent return on their massive investments will soon take the obvious step of issuing massive taxpayer bailouts based on their self-evident position of being too big to fail.
Keep in mind that Marcus also accurately portrayed the failure of large-scale language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT to deliver on their promises early on, and has debunked the idea that true artificial general intelligence can be achieved. We recently provided a series of witnesses to how the adoption and use of generative AI is sluggish and even declining. This is consistent with various reports that AI was not being leveraged in corporate environments where it was supposed to be leveraged at scale. For example, an MIT study claims that 95% of generative AI pilots by companies fail. Similarly, Rand determined that 80% of AI implementations fail, twice the level of other software projects, and TechRepublic puts the cap rate at 85%.
Not only is the idea of rescuing the venture capital community’s ultra-wealthy tech cronies and their initiatives extremely offensive, but it is even more offensive given President Trump’s continued efforts to oppress ordinary citizens as part of his plan to return the United States to 1890-level living standards. Among the many examples: In response to the damage Trump tariffs are doing to both businesses and consumers who are increasingly burdened with costs, DOGE is promoting programs to help the public and small businesses, such as weather warnings and extensive USDA programs to help farmers improve efficiency. The shutdown makes the spectacle of big bucks for the wealthy even more insulting by suspending many federal employees’ current paychecks and reducing SNAP benefits.
So please call your representatives in Congress, distribute this post widely, and encourage others to call or email you too. Mamdani’s victory in New York and the Republican rejection of other key races, a “youth shake-up,” shows voters are refusing to eat Trump’s dog food. These results should strike fear into the hearts of incumbent Republicans and Democrats appealing to President Trump. That means there’s a good chance the hearing will hear harsh words from voters who say that supporting an AI bailout is a fast track to the political graveyard.
By Gary Marcus, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience, New York University. Originally published on his website
A few days ago, Sam Altman got very angry when Brad Gerstner brazenly asked how OpenAI was going to pay its $1.4 trillion in debt when it only had $13 billion in revenue.
In a long but largely empty answer, Altman pointed to unreported and possibly non-existent income, attacked the questioner, and promised that future income would be great.
At the beginning. We make more than that. Next, Brad, if you want to sell your stock, I’ll find you a buyer. But enough is enough. I think there are many people who want to buy OpenAI stock. I think people who talk about things like our computing stuff with breathless concern would be happy to buy the stock. So I think you can immediately sell your stock or someone else’s stock to the people who are making the most noise about this on Twitter. We plan for significant revenue growth. Revenues are increasing rapidly. We are betting positively that ChatGPT will not only continue to grow, but that it can become one of the key AI clouds, that the consumer device business will become important and important, and that AI that can automate science will create huge value. …plan carefully. We understand where the technology, capabilities will grow, and how we can build products and generate revenue around it. You might ruin it. This is a bet we are making, and we are taking the risks that come with it. “The constant risk is that if you don’t have the computing power, you can’t generate revenue and you can’t create models at this kind of scale.”
What Altman failed to say at the time was that he planned to reduce borrowing costs by having American taxpayers (indirectly) foot the bill.
The cat came out of the bag today at the mouth of OpenAI’s CFO, who appeared to be testing out this concept at a Wall Street Journal conference.
In justifying its inclusion in one of the largest (indirect) government subsidies in history, Fryer said, “AI is almost a national strategic asset. When we think about competition with China, for example, we need to really think about it.” (NVidia seems to be trying to do the exact same thing.1)
Remember this tweet?
Literally, almost 10 months to the day, the game is just beginning. And we’re already hearing rumors that the government is likely to follow suit.
This means that you, the taxpayer, will be responsible for the cost.
Horrible. Tell your Congressional representatives today that you don’t want your tax dollars used to bail out overhyped, financially unstable AI companies that spend far more than they earn. Workers are already feeling the pain of being laid off and should not be burdened with the burden.
Get ahead of the too-big-to-fail bullshit before it’s too late to stop it.
This entry was posted in Doomsday Scenarios , Economic Fundamentals , Income Inequality , Investment Outlook , Politics , Ridiculously Obvious Scams , Technology and Innovation , Destroying the Middle Class on November 6, 2025 by Eve Smith.
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