When USSR was crumbling, factories were also paying workers in products they manufactured.

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

RE: https://mas.to/@trendsbot/116211553284922724

When USSR was crumbling, factories were also paying workers in products they manufactured.

This is AI bubble companies trying to print own money. Printing your own money only works if you find a way to make it necessary. That's what taxes do, for example (recommended reading: David Graeber's "Debt").

Here:

👉 "printing money" part is paying employees in tokens

👉 "taxes" part is requiring employees to use AI in their day to day work (thus making tokens necessary)

#AI

[montar@kolektiva.social]

@rysiek The only difference i see is the fact that suff produced by soviet factories was usually quite useful.

[froztbyte@mastodon.social]

@rysiek I remarked on a similar side of it here: https://mastodon.social/@froztbyte/116210234883813208

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

OpenAI is doing this because the investment money is drying out – Nvidia for example is not keen in dumping more money into this particular dumpster fire:
https://www.reuters.com/business/nvidia-will-not-be-able-invest-100-billion-openai-due-ipo-ceo-jensen-says-2026-03-04/

OpenAI business plan used to be:
1. build "AGI"
2. ask it how to make money
3. profit!!1!

A bit over a year ago Altman claimed OpenAI "knows how to build AGI". End of last year Altman started saying "AGI is not a useful term". So that plan fell apart. 🤡

New plan: company town economy!

[strider@ohai.social]

@rysiek, when I say the role of play is an important part of human experience, I don't mean I want to be paid in Monopoly money

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

If employees are paid in tokens that means employees are *paying* for tokens out of their own pockets.

No different than mining company town folks having to buy (or rent!) boots and work clothing from the company that employs them. At "special" rates, no doubt.

By the way this should tell you all you need to know what class "white collar" vibe coders and broader IT folks are.

Hint: no, you're not running the company town, you're renting your tools from your factory owner.

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

@tadzik still, it's Business Insider. So people will be paying attention, sadly. I think it's worth doing some analysis around it.

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

What I'm saying is: unionize. ✊

[xavcc@todon.eu]

@rysiek
Well, it's also same conclusion in our radio show today 🤭
and Organize! Too

[tsturm@famichiki.jp]

@rysiek "I am increasingly asked during candidate interviews how much dedicated inference compute they will have to build with Codex,"

What the hell? That's like if I interview a chef for my restaurant and they ask me how much time they get on the microwave.

[nemo@mas.to]

@rysiek Someone needs to create an analogy to NFTs or some sh!tcoins this is bascially this just with a twist… ain't it?

[dzwiedziu@mastodon.social]

@rysiek I know of one explanation how debt was created based on the priests giving out “sin forgiveness coupons” and those becoming tradeable.

I toot this without any particular reason

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

@nemo it 100% is. But now you are *required* to use the shitcoins in your day-to-day job.

That's what cryptocurrency bubble failed to achieve.

[nemo@mas.to]

@rysiek I swear, Rysiek, those people are truly getting more and more on my nerves… they and their crony fellows and their corrupt friends… 🤢

Hardware is bought by them… so that we use their cloud…

They are all in the same boat… data is the new gold; let's kill E2EE and train our slop generators with everyone's messages…

Move fast and break their minds and societies…

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/spiralist-cult-ai-chatbot-1235463175/

https://medium.com/@markus_brinsa/ai-chatbots-are-messing-with-our-minds-from-ai-psychosis-to-digital-dependency-18f93a43b959

Let's pay our workers in sh*t and force them to use it to pay…🤢🤢🤢

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

@rysiek tempted to riff on this for a video

they've tried so hard to turn AI tokens into a commodity - tokens (AI) in the manner of tokens (crypto)

even tho tokens are incommensurable between models

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

@davidgerard please go right ahead!

Every AI company wants to have their own private monopoly money they themselves issue.

[mtsz@mastodon.com.pl]

@rysiek Connect this with the idea of startup cities and we get banana republics all over again. Crazy times.

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

@rysiek you'd almost think sam altman was some sorta crypto guy

[rysiek@mstdn.social]

@davidgerard

[toerror@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@rysiek This is like paying TV evangelists in prayers.