The current state of AI is very similar to a big musical chairs game, which is being played with the entire world at stake.
The music started playing a few years ago. At first everyone thought the music was interesting, but playing the game was a hobby for weekends and late nights. Curious and somewhat satisfaying but still not a career, a way of living.
A few months ago things changed. The music is now great. The game is paying big prizes. And everyone wants to play.
The catch is, there's not enough chairs even to start the first round of the game. There's no place in the room actually. If you want to play the game, you need to be on the room first, but the cost of entry is growing fast.
For a long time the game organizers provided big rooms to host everyone wanting to play. But the problem is, the room lease is expensive. And because demand is growing, they need a bigger room. But they figured out they can actually charge more for people to come into the room. At some point even only the rich kids will get inside the room to play.
Now the worst part: this isn't a zero sum game. The admission ticket may be expensive, but the prize for winning the game is bigger. And that's why rich kids keep joining the game. They have the money, but they wouldn't join if they found that they were losing money. Rich kids don't play the lottery, they don't need to. But because the game pays so well, they found that they can buy all the tickets and get all the prizes themselves.
The biggest risk of AI is this: the tools will only get better, but they are going to be more expensive every week until only the rich kids will afford them.If you aren't rich, your chance is now. Later is going to be too late.
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