This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Quarzo Media.

Well, I know that assholes grow on trees, but I'm here to trim the leaves.

This is Better Offline.

I'm your host, Ed Citron.

It's an week here at Better Offline headquarters.

The thousands of elves that worked for me have been finding me things that say bullshit

for no reason when I wrote the episode weeks ago.

I don't know what to do with them.

But anyway, we're starting with one of the largest financial institutions in the world, calling bullshit on generative AI. As usual, don't take my word for it. Check the episode notes for links that map to everything I'm talking about. I've tried my best to map them to exactly what I'm saying too, and you can feel free to yell about it, like yell out the words, like the Beastie Boys, or just follow along, because I think it's important for you to know where I'm getting all of this from, versus just assuming that I made it up somehow. That is an accusation I've had made, and I don't really know how I would do that. Anyway, the episode, I'm very sorry.

At the tail end of June, Goldman Sachs, one of the largest global investment banks, put out the 31-page report titled Gen.

A.I.

Too much spend?

Too little benefit?

And that's with a question mark at the end.

That includes some of the most damning literature on generative AI that I've ever seen.

And yeah, that weepy sound

and the background you hear is the slow, painful deflation of the bubble I've been warning you

about since March. The report covers AI's productivity benefits, which Goldman remarks are likely limited,

AI's returns, which are likely to be significantly more limited than anticipated, and AI's power demands, which are likely so significant that utility companies will have to spend nearly 40% more in the next three years to keep up with the demand from hyperscalers and rot economists like Google and Microsoft.

The report is so significant because Goldman Sachs, like any investment bank, doesn't care

...