AI's Big Price Tag

Are we building helpful tools or just expensive hype?

Nov 11, 2025

"The best AI won’t think for us. It will help us think better." — Nadina D. Lisbon

Hello Sip Savants! 👋🏾

AI companies are getting billions of dollars. A new company, Majestic Labs, just raised huge funds to compete with Google and Meta [2]. This has led to a big debate. Is AI the real deal, or just a repeat of the dot-com bubble [3]? Let’s look at what all this money is actually building.

3 Tech Bites

📈 Is AI a Bubble?
- People are worried AI is just hype, like the dot-com bust. But many experts disagree. They say AI is already useful in real products from Google and Meta. One expert from BlackRock says this is a real, foundational shift, not just a bubble [3].
💰 The Race for Power
- New AI labs are raising huge sums of money [2]. They are in a race to build the biggest, most powerful AI. The risk is that they are focusing on power first and safety second. They are building faster than they are building carefully.
🤝 “Human-First” AI
- What do we want AI to be? Microsoft calls one idea “humanist superintelligence” [1]. This just means AI that helps people, not replaces them. The goal is to build tools that boost our own creativity and teamwork. This should be the main goal, not just an afterthought.

5-Minute Strategy

🧠 Your 5-Minute AI “Help Check”

Before you use a new AI tool, ask these simple questions:

Does this help me?
- Is it helping me create, connect, or learn?
- Or is it just doing a task for me?
Am I still in charge?
- Do I feel more skilled after using this?
- Or do I feel more dependent on the tool?
Is this a fair trade?
- The AI learns from my data. Am I comfortable with what I’m giving it in exchange for the help I get?

This quick check helps you stay in control. It keeps the focus on you, not just the tech.

1 Big Idea

💡Are We Paying Billions for Helpful AI... or Just Mirrors?

We are in a race. Companies are spending billions to build the “smartest” AI [2]. The market is rewarding them, betting that AI is the next internet [3]. Everyone is focused on building powerful “superintelligence.”

But we’ve skipped a step. We haven’t fully agreed on what a “good” AI looks like.

Here’s the problem: Today’s AI models are like giant mirrors. They are trained on everything humans have ever written on the internet. That includes all our best ideas. It also includes all our biases, flaws, and mistakes.

When we spend billions to make these “mirrors” bigger and faster, we aren’t necessarily making them smarter. We are just making them more powerful reflections of ourselves. This is where the idea of “human-first” AI becomes so important [1].

The goal should not be to build an “other” intelligence that replaces us. The goal should be to build tools that amplify our intelligence. We need tools that help us work together, solve problems, and be more creative.

If we just chase “power” and “speed,” we risk building tools that don’t share our values. The real question isn’t “When will AI get super-smart?” The real question is: “Can we use all this money to build AI that reflects the best of us, not just all of us?”

Share your thoughts!

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