The Golden Pyramid and the illusion of intelligence

The 10 trillion dollar gamble

Artificial Intelligence has effectively become the biggest Pyramid Ponzi scheme in economic history. The hype bubble that surrounds it disguises the cold and ruthless approach to growth at any cost; and the concentration of wealth and power. Big Tech is deliberately withholding environmental data on carbon emissions, air pollution, energy, and water consumption. It is constantly expanding the hype bubble with a narrative of ‘abundance’, which is a classic red flag of a pyramid scheme. ‘Hope of the company’ wild claims keep coming from the ‘hungry ghost’ Tech Bros.

We’ll be amazed at how quickly we’re curing this cancer, and that one, and heart disease

‘Hope of the company’ is a way of promoting an idea, innovation or product which does not actually exist as a viable working product.. Present that idea to investors in a sexy, sci-fi video with an accompanying narrative, and you have the beginnings of a Pyramid Ponzi scheme. Some time ago Silicon Valley decided that their real ‘customers’ are investors and the ‘stock is the product’.

and what bigger investor than a government?

So we now have Trump announcing ‘Stargate’, $500 billion of partly taxpayer funded data centres /AI infrastructure which claims it will “quickly cure cancer and heart disease”

“As this technology progresses, we will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate. We’ll be amazed at how quickly we’re curing this cancer, and that one, and heart disease, and what this will do to the ability to deliver very high-quality healthcare, the costs, but really the cure of the diseases at a rapid, rapid rate. I think it will be among the most important thing this technology does”. – Sam Altman

The mood music is sounding increasingly desperate, perhaps fearing that the AI bubble will burst; so doubling down on the hype and the far-fetched, implausible claims. Remember what happened to the ‘Cryptocurrency Saint’ at the centre of the Effective Altruism cult, Sam Bankman-Fried. His adoption of the Effective Altruism mantra that the ends justify the means, got him banged up in prison for fraud.

The hype never stops, even when the AI bubble is bigger than $10 trillion. – Jeremy Funk

The Economist says the current bubble is the biggest gamble in economic history partly because adoption is slowing. The market capitalization of the magnificent seven (Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and Tesla) has risen by more than $10 trillion since January 2023, driven by the increasing expectations and expenditures for generative AI, of which training is still the biggest usage of Nvidia chips.

AI “mainlined into the veins” of the nation

Keir Starmer has recently employed Poppy Gustafsson as his new Investment Minister. Private Eye notes ‘Given Baroness Gustafsson OBE CBE’s role at the heart of one of the UK’s largest corporate frauds…..others may wonder if she is less an entrepreneur who knows about growing business and more a practitioner of the less economically productive dark arts of creative accounting.‘

Gustafsson, a chartered accountant, is mixed up in the fraud case surrounding the sale of software enterprise Autonomy to Hewlett Packard. ‘Among Autonomy’s ruses were schemes to create illusory sales by buying and reselling hardware and selling software services with upfront premiums in return for future discounts, artificially accelerating revenue and thus making Autonomy look a better prospect.’

Poppy Gustafsson stepped down as chief executive officer of her next enterprise Darktrace in September 2024, not long after it was sold to Thoma Bravo. Darktrace was founded with Mike Lynch,

Mike Lynch died last year mysteriously in his superyacht just before the sale of Darktrace to Thoma Bravo went ahead. And in a separate incident, days earlier, Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car while out running. Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance for software firm Autonomy, had stood trial in the US after being accused on fraud and conspiracy charges alongside the company’s former CEO, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch. Prior to his US trial Steve Chamberlain was the former chief operating officer of British cyber security company Darktrace

Mike Lynch’s connection to Darktrace [was] through his venture capital firm Invoke Capital. In 2013, a team of Cambridge mathematicians, including current CEO Poppy Gustafsson, along with business people and intelligence experts, founded the startup that relies on A.I. to combat cyberthreats. The U.K.-based Darktrace raised $230.5 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Invoke was an early investor of Darktrace.

Poppy Gustafsson is now turbocharging and ‘unleashing’ the Artificial Intelligence ‘weapon’ of Keir Starmer on UK citizens.. Apparently ministers want it “mainlined into the veins” of the nation. UK taxpayers will be forced to invest in the ‘golden pyramid’ whether they like it or not. I am becoming very concerned with the Authoritarian and even violent tone of the language used in this realm.

Unfortunately, as reported by Peter Geoghegan, Starmer’s top AI advisor did not declare his role at Hakluyt AI investment fund.

Venture capitalist Matt Clifford’s action plan to “turbocharge” AI in the UK was unveiled by Starmer last week. But while Clifford was writing the AI action plan he was also sitting on the advisory board of Hakluyt Capital, an AI-focused investment spin off from Hakluyt, the advisory firm with close ties to Labour. Hakluyt Capital was created by Starmer’s business advisor Varun Chandra, who reportedly retains an interest in the fund whose portfolio includes a clutch of AI businesses. Clifford joined the firm’s advisory board last June.

This is a very incestuous world..

Environmental health harms

Whilst Sam Altman makes implausible claims about AI generated medicines quickly curing cancer and heart disease, The actual facts illustrate that AI is causing ‘significant health burdens’ right now.

‘The surging demand for AI has led to a rapid expansion of energy-intensive data centers, impacting the environment through escalating carbon emissions and water consumption. While significant attention has been paid to AI’s growing environmental footprint, the public health burden, a hidden toll of AI, has been largely overlooked. Specifically, AI’s lifecycle, from chip manufacturing to data center operation, significantly degrades air quality through emissions of criteria air pollutants such as fine particulate matter, substantially impacting public health.’
‘The total public health burden of U.S. data centers in 2030 is valued at up to more than $20 billion per year, double that of U.S. coal-based steelmaking and comparable to that of on-road emissions of California“

The routine maintenance of diesel backup generators and gigantic energy demand of data centers lead to air quality degradation and significant public health burdens (e.g., asthma, heart attack, etc. for sensitive individuals). Importantly, this burden is not limited by county lines and instead felt by communities across the whole country.

The environmental toll of GenAI development, with hardware production such as GPUs and data centers consume vast resources. Mining rare metals like cobalt and tantalum for these systems contributes to deforestation, water pollution, and soil degradation. Data centers, essential for GenAI operations, are projected to consume over 8% of U.S. electricity by 2030, further straining energy grids. Additionally, GenAI systems generate substantial e-waste, exacerbating global pollution challenges. Building those data centers requires materials that can also be carbon intensive and polluting , like steel, cement, and of course chips.

Last year a microsoft whistleblower revealed the connections between Big oil and AI

In the midst of urgent global efforts to tackle climate breakdown, oil and gas companies are attempting to use AI to supercharge their fossil fuel extraction in a last ditch cash grab before oil and gas is consigned to the past.

Of course if we build more fossil-fuel plants to meet our growing electricity demand from AI, it will comes with negative consequence for the climate. Trump this week suggested coal can help meet surging electricity demand from manufacturing and the massive data centers needed for artificial intelligence. But It’s natural gas that would benefit the most from rising electricity generation from AI. And that’s a lot of methane and emissions going into the electric grid.

In Copenhagen, in 2018, I noted how the Big Tech corporations were buying up Government funded renewables, to claim carbon neutrality. Meanwhile the Government was still burning coal, biomass and incinerating rubbish to keep domestic heat networks going. In other words, subsidised decarbonised domestic energy needs were being sidelined for Big Tech to greenwash their business model

Nuclear Fusion hype further pushes the narrative of abundance

Helion, a 12-year-old startup backed by Sam Altman, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, has ingratiated itself amongst Silicon Valley heavyweights eager to unleash the commercial potential of nuclear fusion energy. Its ambitious promises have garnered the attention of deep-pocketed investors—and raised concerns amongst nuclear experts wary of the company’s aggressive timeline. Helion has unveiled a power purchase agreement with Microsoft This has also become the latest in the narrative of ‘abundance’ hype, In this case the abundance of energy. My understanding is that nuclear fusion is far too expensive and not a working product at any usable scale

They don’t share any information, they don’t publish, they don’t provide data, they don’t share scientific advances,. [it} makes it really, really challenging for us to assess where they are in the development of their system.” – Saskia Mordijck

Water Vampires

Pablo José Gámez Cersosimo has summarised this so well on linkedin

‘The Labour Party’s announcement of AI “growth zones,” starting in Oxfordshire near the UK‘s first new reservoir in three decades, underscores the growing tension between technological advancement and its social environmental consequences: the water footprint of AI, along with its energy demands, poses an increasingly risk to already strained water resources, “particularly in regions like southeast England.” (The Guardian).

Also know as “water vampires”, AI systems are voracious consumers of water (The Independent). The servers that power AI generate heat and require extensive cooling mechanisms, often reliant on clean, fresh water. Projections suggest that by 2027, global AI could account for 6.6 billion cubic meters of water annually—equivalent to nearly two-thirds of England’s total water consumption (Reuters).

The southeast of England, where the first AI growth zone is planned, is already one of the most water-stressed regions in the country. The Environment Agency warns of a potential shortfall of 5 billion liters of water per day by 2050. AI’s burgeoning water demand threatens to exacerbate this deficit, undoing hard-won progress in reducing water consumption by businesses.

The infrastructure required for AI, including semiconductors, demands water-intensive manufacturing processes. Semiconductor plants, for instance, require millions of gallons of ultra-pure water annually to produce chips essential for AI technologies (UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The establishment of a new reservoir in Oxfordshire should be a victory for water resilience, not a resource earmarked to sustain AI datacentres.

As Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay stated, AI infrastructure may soon consume six times more water than Denmark, a country with a population of six million. Such demands will place undue strain on communities like Culham, where residents already face water shortages during heatwaves.

The promise of AI cannot come at the expense of its natural resources, particularly water—a finite and irreplaceable necessity. Anything less risks turning technological triumph into ecological tragedy (Unctad).’

Cost of Living

Extra demand by Artificial Intelligence on energy, land and water puts up the cost of energy, housing and water for ordinary people trying to make ends meet. Clean air, clean water, healthy soils, shelter and a stable climate are top of the hierarchy of need for life on this planet. An unstable climate leads to increases in home and car insurance. Some homes become uninsurable from climate related exposure to flooding, sea-level rise, storms or fire. Extreme climate related weather causes crop failure, putting up the price of food. The marginal gains of AI are presented to us in detail (ad nauseum) without fact based democratic debate about the immense downsides.

Not every unit of new demand is equal.

Is it equally as important to use thousands of overpowered, melting graphics cards to generate garish AI imagery, or bland, unimaginative text?

Data centre growth often gets casually presented among socially critical activities, such as desalination, air conditioning and electrification, but without the necessary question asked: is data centre expansionism socially critical, too? – Ketan Joshi

The illusion of intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the illusion of intelligence where the ‘stock is the product’ and the investor is the ‘customer’ It relies on pumping out hyped up narratives which create a pyramid / bubble / ponzi -like effect, i think we should call a spade a spade. And this one is built on sand

If i want to source knowledge or trusted information i go to trusted humans, who have a track record of integrity. Or wikipedia which is fact checked by a human community and linked to human research. It is mostly criminals who gain from using the illusionary intelligence ‘plagerism machine’, which steals data and uses it to mimick and deceive. AI is is well suited to scams.

AI which is pushed down our throats is not something we need, nor the education sector does. That other AI (especially generative AI) is burning the planet, it is unethical, it is morally unjustifiable, it makes monopolists richer, it deskills students, it pollutes the Internet, it is a badge of dishonor, – Dagmar Monet, Director of Computer Science, Berlin School of Economics and Law

AI is a form of “fascistic solutionism” that diverts us from serious problems and presents tech that classifies and surveils as a solution. – Dan McQuillan

Are AI chatbots like Gemini or ChatGBT really personalised rabbit holes?

Exponential growth of AI

Nate Hagens has called Artificial Intelligence ‘the mother of all backfire effects’

 Through the lens of ‘obligatory technology’ and Jevons paradox, I examine how AI could turbocharge the economic superorganism – accelerating its impact on resource extraction, ecosystem degradation, and human meaning – all while fragmenting our shared reality and concentrating power in dangerous ways. – Nate Hagens

The race for materials and water is already on. Have no doubt, the data will get to drink before the people. The needs of the data center will come before the needs of the community. The local communities where these data centers are located will suffer most. Resist! – Gerry McGovern