Original comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1uyyywv/comment/oy3cgd7/
Trees vs. Data Centers
Photo 1: Memphis, TN (top)
Photo 2: Sandston, VA
Photo 3: Abilene, Texas
Photo 4: New Albany, OH
Photo 5: Fayetteville, GA
No, people genuinely think AI is going away because it’s “useless” and doesn’t provide anything worthwhile. The comment I replied to said the AI data centre will be useless when the bubble bursts. If they don’t think AI will go away, why would they say that?
I’m anticipating that mixed-use data centers will have enough capacity to meet post-pop demand. The current ubiquity of LLMs will end once people are forced to pay the true cost. I don’t expect the technology to suddenly just vanish, but most people are not going to be willing to pay what it will cost to make inference profitable.
That depends heavily on the quality bar, not just aggregate capacity. Gemini 3.5 Flash qualifies on 42 of 52 tasks at a 75% bar, but only 15 at 100%—so routine workloads may remain cheap while demanding ones become premium. The real question is how much of today’s usage needs near-perfect output.