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AI is a Tool & So is Thiel [1]

['Greg Dworkin', 'Sabrina Haake', 'Chloris Creator']

Date: 2026-07-29  

Tech companies and other adopting corporations are using AI as an excuse for white collar speed up. All the while Goldman Sachs states, “We still do not find a meaningful relationship between productivity and AI adoption at the economy-wide level.” Companies such as Uber and Zillow, since they reward excess use, are burning thru their annual AI token budget in a few months. Companies are not getting meaningful return on investment and widespread use of AI is requiring triple checks at multiple levels and companies are now rehiring workers they let go to improve their flagging productivity.

All of this is unfolding while the Magnificent 7 tech companies are investing and borrowing tens of billions, inflating the stock market & the wider economy, and building data centers while aiming to externalize the costs of utilities, water, & environmental hazard to communities across the country.

This overblown investment bubble has brought us much closer to an economic meltdown worse than 2008. A few days ago the Fitch international credit rating agency stated, “The scale of AI investment is such that the exposure of the economy and overall capital market to such a correction is significant,” “adding that the way capital markets and economies have become intertwined with AI has “created a vulnerability for credit.”

Meanwhile Dr Alondra Nelson reports, New York City yesterday (July 26) launched the Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew– five in-house teams of technologists working alongside agencies to build digital services that make city government easier to use and more affordable for New Yorkers. The first project builds a portal to enforce the country’s first “Click to Cancel” protections against subscription traps.

Dr Nelson goes on to explain, “The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, which I helped develop at the White House(during the Biden years), argued that AI systems should meet five standards: safe and effective operation, protection against algorithmic discrimination, data privacy, notice and explanation, and the right to a human alternative.”

There is no doubt that AI is a versatile tool but any tool can be massively misused in the wrong hands.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/29/800076629/community/ai-is-a-tool-so-is-thiel/

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