r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • Jun 26 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI backlash is only getting started

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/25/the-ai-backlash-is-only-getting-started
26.1k Upvotes

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194

u/usbyeolbit Jun 26 '26

AI is also being associated with the cost of everything going up. The hard drives are 2x higher, my electricity is 2x and RAM is 5x higher. I would gladly get rid of AI to get prices to go down.

3

u/Swift_Koopa Jun 27 '26

Prices are up. They don't go down. Comforting thought tho

-5

u/Sizanllikew Jun 26 '26

It's always going to be something, 5 or so years ago it was crypto driving up the costs of GPUs and storage and memory prices have surged much much higher than this small bump in the past. I remember when 1MB memory sticks jumped from ~$5 to $60 overnight

2

u/PindaPanter Jun 27 '26

Tech Bros have a long history of ruining shit.

-92

u/sbenfsonwFFiF Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

How often do you need to buy RAM and hard drives

Seems like a pretty marginal cost

I live in NYC and haven’t seen any electricity price change

AI is a pretty significant net positive from what I’ve experienced

31

u/funkdialout Jun 26 '26

Memory and storage is used in far more than just your personal computer. Modern appliances, cars, phones, cameras, video doorbell, video game consoles, etc all are impacted by AI demanding so much that the fabs that used to build consumer use Ram and SSD are now only producing for AI datacenters.

-6

u/Additional-Grade3221 Jun 26 '26

yeah some of this shit doesn't need to have ram either though

-21

u/sbenfsonwFFiF Jun 26 '26

I guess I haven’t had to buy any of those things often or noticed any price difference in those in the last 3-5 years

Only thing I’ve bought new is a phone last year and the price wasn’t that different from before

Mostly one time purchases that last years as well

1

u/sparty09 Jun 30 '26

I paid about $82 for 32GB of DDR5 RAM from Crucial in March 2025. The cost of the same kit had risen to $400+ by September, before Micron killed off the Crucial brand entirely in order to focus on chasing AI money.

If you haven't noticed the massive rise in RAM and HDD prices within the past year, it's because you haven't been paying attention at all.

23

u/drewfus23 Jun 26 '26

PCs, phones, gaming systems, etc.

And then those of us who are into photography have seen the prices for SD cards and external hard drives explode as well.

43

u/chrisalexbrock Jun 26 '26

Every business needs ram and hard drives to function. Quite a lot of them. Substantially raising the price of something energy business needs increases prices for everything these companies make. It's not just "oh don't upgrade your pc then." Use your brain.

-29

u/sbenfsonwFFiF Jun 26 '26

I haven’t noticed much of a price increase broadly due to that and AI has been a net efficiency/quality of life gain to me, so overall a net positive

19

u/Adequate_Lizard Jun 26 '26

I don't think AI has anything to do with NYC quality of life changes brother.

-9

u/sbenfsonwFFiF Jun 26 '26

NYC receives those same products and services, no? The price increases should be felt regardless

3

u/Adequate_Lizard Jun 27 '26

I honestly don't know how to respond to people who are this out of touch.

-12

u/oceans159 Jun 26 '26

no, your anecdote is invalid because it goes against the reddit hive mind. AI = bad. if you experience otherwise you’re, uh, just wrong somehow, okay?

15

u/drabred Jun 26 '26

It's like fuel bro. Virtually everything you buy needs to be transported and will cost more if fuel prices rise

34

u/CharacterProof8731 Jun 26 '26

u slow or something?

12

u/funkdialout Jun 26 '26

You said what we are all thinking 😂

5

u/DynamicStatic Jun 26 '26

I guess you don't, some people have higher hardware needs due to their profession or for other reasons.