Apple Will 'Watch Everything Burn' When the AI Bubble Bursts
Industry critic Ed Zitron argues that the current economic model for Large Language Models is unsustainable due to high token costs and unproven profitability. He suggests that Apple and other tech giants face significant financial risks if the AI investment bubble bursts.
Why it matters
The debate over AI profitability is central to the current tech market valuation and the long-term viability of generative AI services.
Memory prices have doubled, Macs and iPads have gone up, and iPhones are expected to follow. Ed Zitron – who writes the Where's Your Ed At newsletter, hosts the Better Offline podcast, and has been described by Politico as the AI boom's most "acerbic gadfly" – has spent years arguing the buildout driving those costs will never pay for itself.
We asked him what happens to Apple if he's right.
You've been calling AI a bubble since before it was fashionable. For MacRumors readers who mostly know it as ChatGPT or Apple Intelligence on their iPhone, what, in plain terms, is actually broken about the economics of the LLM industry?
At their very core, Large Language Models' costs run contrary to basically every model of selling software.
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