The Compute Efficiency Argument Big AI Won't Make

The compute-scarcity frame is not neutral journalism — it is the product of an industry where the companies making the loudest capacity claims are also selling the capacity. When a Bluesky user compared current AI infrastructure spending to 1960s Detroit automakers ^[3], the analogy landed because it named the structural problem: incumbents with massive sunk costs in a particular technological direction rarely volunteer the efficiency argument that would undermine their position.