General Discussion

I too am a retired software engineer, and I can only agree with you. I never thought that an technology for immutable recording (blockchain) combined with distributed databases (the ledgers of crypto) would be used to create a valueless currency based solely on numerical calculations and spent electricity. In my opinion it should loose whatever value is assigned to it as processing power becomes increasingly less expensive.

I always thought that emulating neural networks was the right approach for computer based knowledge studies and was excited when zero shot learning was coming online. I didn't conceive of the new robber barons of the 21st century being unconstrained by a supine (bought and paid for) government. Like some municipalities charge developers for system costs created by their activities, I'd suggest making the data centers pay for their own new power generation needs.

To my mind what they are calling AI is just statistical interpretation of an immensely large database, potentially useful but not really creative. While sizes are not publicly released, outside analysis suggests ChatGPT 5.5 for example has a parameter database on the order of 1.5 trillion parameters. A truly super Eliza.