Google is spending a lot on AI, but what's not clear is how Google will make a lot from AI. Or, you know, even break even. Given, you know, that businesses are seeing zero return from AI:
Pluralistic: IP can’t save you from AI (18 Aug 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
You don't have to believe that AI "art" is any good (I don't), nor do you have to believe that AI "art" can be any good (I don't) to understand that the reason that the capital markets are putting trillions into AI is that they believe they can fire workers of every kind and replace them with AI:
Pluralistic: “Rights for robots” and the AI slavery fantasy (10 Jul 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
While the AI bubble is primarily a material phenomenon (driven by the calculation that bosses are easy marks for a sales pitch that sees them replacing workers with software), there is an inescapable ideological component to it: the desire for a world without people in it:
Anthropic commits to spending $200 billion on Google's cloud and chips: Report
The commitment suggests the AI startup accounts for more than 40 per cent of the revenue backlog Google disclosed to investors last week, according to the report.
How Sundar Pichai is rethinking Google for the AI era | Decoder
AI may fatally wound web’s ad model, warns Tim Berners-Lee
Web inventor warns reliance on AI agents threatens multibillion-dollar revenues for Google and Meta
Google Cloud Next 2026: The End Of The AI Pilot Era
Google Cloud Next 2026 opened with Thomas Kurian declaring the end of the AI pilot era and Sundar Pichai comparing the enterprise refrain of last year (“Can we build an agent?”) to today’s: “How do we manage thousands of them?” Google Cloud Next ’26 answers the second question with a single product story: Gemini Enterprise […]
Big Tech’s A.I. Spending Is Accelerating (Again)
Despite the risk of a bubble, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon plan to spend billions more on artificial intelligence than they already do.
Pluralistic: AI solipsists and AI cynics (24 Jul 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
As a technology, AI isn't exceptional. It's not exceptionally wicked. It's not exceptionally good. Take away the accompanying, galactic-scale stock-swindle, and we'd call AI's applications "plug-ins" and we'd use them and abuse them in the same way that we've used every other technology:
Perspective: AI demand is inflated, and only Anthropic is being realistic
The main usage metric for artificial intelligence, called tokens, looks explosive on paper, but it may be significantly overstated.
Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain
Google’s AI Overview, which is easy to fool into stating nonsense as fact, is stopping people from finding and supporting small businesses and credible sources.
AI is probably not a bubble
AI companies have revenue, demand, and paths to immense value
AI is probably not a bubble
AI companies have revenue, demand, and paths to immense value
AI's Economics Don't Make Sense
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Google v Microsoft: the battle of AI business models
The search giant’s vertically integrated approach is beginning to pay off
AI's Trillion-Dollar Opportunity: Sequoia AI Ascent 2025 Keynote
How to Develop An AI Pricing Model | Salesforce Ventures
Your guide to developing an effective and scalable AI pricing strategy.
