The IMA/#SolutionsWatch panel is back for another all-star debate/discussion/free-for-all. This time, we tackle the question of AI: can it be used as a tool or should it be shunned altogether? Where and how do you draw the line in the sand? And what’s the AI hubbub all about, anyway? Find out in this fascinating conversation.
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Panel guests:
James Corbett of corbettreport.com
Broc West of corbettreport.com
Ryan Cristian of TheLastAmericanVagabond.com
Whitney Webb of UnlimitedHangout.com
Steve Poikonen of AM Wakeup
Hakeem Anwar of AbovePhone.com
Jason Bermas of X
Kit Knightly of Off-Guardian.org
Hrvoje Moric of GeopoliticsAndEmpire.com
Gabriel of Gabe.Rocks
What happened with Derrick there in the beginning? He wasn’t introduced and then just left?
Yes. That was very strange.
I’m confident that was only the intro cut from unrelated material.
Derrick had a poor internet connection and decided not to participate to make way for another panelist. I’m sure he will be there for the next one.
Cool. cool. Thanks for filling the void.
Broc! By the way, I was thrilled to see you on this episode. I always enjoy your input (and graphics…and humor in the graphics or clips.)
It was a real honor to participate, for a long-form read of my take on these important questions I would encourage you to read my essay: https://libresolutions.network/articles/ai-regret/
Hi Gabriel, really gotta get you back on my podcast to talk about AI soon if you are willing. I’ve been writing a lot on the subject recently on my stack. Canada is positioning itself to be a global leader (top 3) in this space along with the U.S. and China. I have yet to read your article ‘We will come to regret our every use of AI’ but am looking forward to doing so; perhaps this weekend. I have very mixed thoughts and emotions about it (see my other comment in this post which I will be posting shortly).
O:55 i dont agree with anwar that kyc’ing AI will no longer allow people to use it anonymously. Just like with crypto, kyc will be bypassed. you already now have access to hundreds of ai models completely anonymously, paying with monero and i see no way for the overlords to stop this
There is literally nothing stop the Gov making Monero illegal – personally I’d drop it into the tax law and have the IRS do the work if I was an evil gov….sure some folks might still use it but if your look at a five or ten stretch and paying a massive fine for doing so it’s value will be considerably lower.
Then ask yourself why that hasn’t happened yet an why literally every government has gone the road of regulation rather than outright ban? Also, it’s untraceable, so not everyone user will care whether it’s legal or not 😉
Maybe they like having it around for their own reasons? Maybe they just don’t feel the need yet? I have no idea why, but there is nothing stopping any Gov from making it a crime to hold crypto- and there would be almost no push back if they dropped a tax on it. Al Capone got Spanked pretty good for tax evasion
True not every user will care, but if you can’t buy anything except illegal stuff it’s kinda Monopoly money. I could print DuckNotes and convince my local drug dealer to take them but he can’t buy himself a car with them can he? Maybe he could get HIS suppler to accept them but at some point the money needs to be laundered if anyone wants to buy regular stuff with it…..thus IF they made monero use a crime (or put a high tax on it like they did full auto guns) it’s actual value drops considerably.
YES there would probably be ways to launder dirty crypto, but it would need professionals who would charge a high fee (you can’t start a monero car wash after all) esp if just possession of. Undeclared monero got the IRS to confiscate your l house and car and put you in jail.
Then again the idea of people setting up LLMs to provide illicit AI is also far fetched…..most people don’t want to pay what it actually costs to provide AI (it’s run at a loss) and I can’t imagine any AI service that would be worth real cost plus crime tax for any use case……
AND all that assumes that you will still be able to use internet without KYC and constant monitoring of what you do.
You can buy giftcards for literally anything with it so laundering is easy. Plus how does the state punish you for owning it if it can’t know you own it?
Not using claude coz it’s used by them in warcrimes is the same as not using guns coz they’re used by them in warcrimes. I’m with kit on this, tools are not good or bad and anyway all the purists claiming to not use it still use it unwittingly every day in their work.
Agreed. Anthropic is pure evil. See my article ‘In Memoriam’ which is the result of their AI targeting the girls school in Iran. URL: https://fournier.substack.com/p/in-memoriam
This Independent Media Alliance (IMA) panel’s “Drawing the AI Line in the Sand” discussion was super important for all of us. It not only repeats the message, but it reaffirms, helps to reinforce where Corbett Report members stand on the AI issue.
In the real world, often we are marginalized by the AI-Tech-loving culture because we avoid aspects of the system. The group, the IMA panel helped to re-establish that we are with like-minded people. It is a shot in the arm for us, and also helps to shape a liberty-loving narrative to the broader public.
PS
It was nice to see a non-AI Whitney Webb.
PSS
Ya know, food packages have labels like “non-GMO” or “Organic”.
It’d be nice to have a “certified by IMA” to be “non-AI”.
Decades ago when I was mailing out tons of 9/11 Truth literature, I made up a return address name:
“SEI – Scientists and Engineers for Integrity”. I still have sheets of those address stickers buried in an old file.
It is okay and also good marketing and also creative to mock-up names and labels and stuff.
Okay now this is gonna be a bit personal.
Firstly, James, I think you are not being realistic about AI.
I totally understand your approach to not using AI at all, but this is a mistake in my opinion. I don’t know you that well. But if I recall (please correct me if I’m wrong), I think that you are a father. I am also a father of an 8-year old. And in his school (a private one in Thailand) they do start to use AI in their middle school section and beyong. My point being here that it is inevitable. AI WILL be used in schools and education whether you like it or not. BTW, I worked 36 years in the education sector (23, as a teacher). So, my point here is that you’d better understand the nature of this AI beast. If you are not (intimately), you will NOT adequately understand how it will be affecting your child and his/her behaviour and use of the tech. Think Sun Tzu’s Art of War.
I myself have mixed feelings, thoughts, and emotions about AI. I originally studied in Computer Science as a teen (in the mid-1980s in Canada). I also took AI courses in university over 20 years ago. So, I’m not unfamiliar with the subject.
In 2022, I changed my vocation from teacher to independent investigative journalist (see https://fournier.substack.com/p/in-search-of-truth). I’ve written many articles on globalism and the technocratic takeover. Recently, I wrote some articles about AI, AI Data Centres, and the like.
I’ve exposed how Canada is becoming the 2nd largest AI force in the world (after the US and even before China) due to its recent moves and how it is the absolute best location in the world for AI Data Centres (unfortunately!). You can see my last 3 articles and most recent podcast on this topic.
I have come to realise, listening to this particular AI conversation (and the previous one you had with my good friend Johnny Vedmore) that this AI dilemma is a real dichotomy. Damn if you do, damn if you don’t (use it) situation.
Personally, I’ve recently been using AI. I personally chose to use DeepSeek (perhaps subconsciously for my affection for China since I lived there from 2008 to 2021 and very much dislike the U.S. since it has been totally taken over by the Zionists for decades. Regardless, I have been using it for research to help me – not to write portions of my articles since I write those with my very own words (and sarcasm), but to SAVE TIME researching certain things. Let me give you a very practical and useful EXAMPLE. I my most recent post, I wanted to find a link/web page that showed a listing of all (100+) Canadian government departments. This would have taken me forever to find using general search engines such as Goolge or Brave or Presearch. But DeepSeek fond two sites in seconds and this saved me time (here is the link for your reference: https://www.canada.ca/en/government/dept.html).
Let me continue in a separate reply since your character limit is preventing me from expressing my full thought….
So, my point being here that of EFFICIENCY.
Hence, in other words this AI tool (DeepSeek) saved me time and trouble finding a site I could use for my article (https://fournier.substack.com/p/information-request-documents-reveal). This gives me more time to write about the tyranny that is tormenting us. A definite, measurable, positive.
However, where I’ve been more hesitant and self-critical is with regards to generative AI. I’ve always struggled to find good image for the cover image for my Substack posts (a common struggle for many Substack authors). I used to just edit my own in my good old paint program (Paint Shop Pro) which took me forever to edit. Generative AI helped in that regard, so I started using it. The first one I ever used was Grok (see my cover for https://fournier.substack.com/p/meet-canadas-new-prime-minister-mark).
I’ve used it on several occasions since for some article covers as well as my ‘Rabbit Shorts’ (cover image for my short video clips of my podcasts, https://fournier.substack.com/podcast). But recently, I read a comment indicating that I am “feeding the [AI] beast” in the context of [why] AI Data centres are needed. That got me thinking. “Dan, you are indeed a hypocrite, as you are feeding the beast by using generative AI for your covers.” I then realised, YES I am. So, I’ve decided now thenceforth NO LONGER TO USE GENERATIVE AI to produce images for covers of my articles or Rabbit Shorts or Substack article covers. Because, if I do so, I am PART OF THE PROBLEM, i.e. triggering the need for these insane AI Data Centres. Thus, I am now committed not to use generative AI.
However, I still think AI is useful in leveraging some capacity to find some research elements I need for my investigative pieces (as some of your guests like Jason Bermas alluded to in this podcast).
Therefore, in this context, I’d love to hear your counter-arguments – should you have any – in this respect. James, I think this is a very important conversation to be had.
Always a pleasure to challenge my fellow Canadians.
Cheers James.
– Dan Fournier
https://fournier.substack.com
> My point being here that it is inevitable.
It’s as inevitable as massive subsidized power consumption.
> AI WILL be used in schools and education whether you like it or not.
Just one more reason to end compulsory schooling.
> So, my point here is that you’d better understand the nature of this AI beast.
Which iteration of the beast? Produced by which mega corporation?
Mkey
Schooling is not actually compulsory in most of the world…. In the US laws vary by state but thanks to those “crazy fundies” back in the day most folks would have zero or near zero issues homeschooling….TBH you would have to put considerable effort into his kids a WORSE education then they would get in a state school. The only place offhand I know of that makes homeschooling illegal outright is Germany.
I went to duckduckgo.com (AI assist is turned off). I entered the query “i need a list of all canadian central government departments”
The first entry (after the Wikipedia suggestion) was the same page you found using AI.
I understand your larger point about speeding up research, because I have used AI to help get legit references for esoteric things. (A recent one related to primary sources discussing the LXX translation of Genesis 4, which returned a digitized version of “Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis,” along with a blatant hallucination.)
But try traditional search first. That is my policy.
As I have shown, traditional search is not completely dead (yet).
Folks AI is a demonic imposition on the ORGANIC expression of the inherent infintie human!
In the following link The Three Levels of Imposition Upon Humanity written by George Kavassilas the second level describes the core aspect of AIs imposition on the organic expression of the human race…
Level Two – Exo-Political – The Scalpel
• AI/TI Technological Intelligence God, along with its multidimensional imperial techno-structure and assimilated extraterrestrial and interdimensional peoples, races and civilizations, star nations and even some galactic realms along with governed councils, federations and all associated super-technologies spawned from these reality structures.
• Intended reality replication and subsequent assimilation of Human Consciousness via augmentation and migration into the technological singularity through purposeful implementation of specific technologies furthering planetary domination and control of our evolutionary path, with a resulting degree of Human harvest.
• An attempt of systematic and precise severing from our roots and from our foundation that is our natural individual Consciousness, Spirit and Soul, and from our natural collective Consciousness, Spirit and Soul of our Humanity as a whole, and the natural Consciousness, Spirit and Soul of our Mother Planet – and therefore, all the way through to the Natural Intelligence, Consciousness, Spirit, and Soul of Universal Creation.
• Dissemination of atheistic and materialistic ideology through its religion of Scientism, and is seemingly in opposition to Level Three.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/kajabi-storefronts-production/file-uploads/sites/9748/downloads/30ef0f1-28ce-b7f-8d4-4dd47b04346_The_Three_Levels_of_Imposition_-_2024.jpg
My daughter is an artist and is very frustrated with AI images. Somehow it being ‘okay’ to use this only because you are not an artist… that would be the same argument someone would use that isn’t a ‘writer’
I gave AI direct links to articles and asked it to cite them in APA 7th edition format. All of them were wrong, and often fabricated. I do not trust AI at all after this. And it is quite easy to poison AI right now.
From my limited experience with AI, I might again consider using it if I ever need a recipe for a cheesecake.
😉
All that has ever been needed is for a large number of individuals to simply not comply. Unfortunately, this has never and will never happen. The great majority of us are just too brain-washable. I’d venture to say that in every generation there are less than .001 percent that are not completely under mind control. Even most of these so-called truthers, I’d assume. Probably myself as well. Who knows.
The devil and one of his friends were walking along a path when the friend noticed that someone else came along and had picked up a piece of TRUTH. The friend said to the devil “Doesn’t this concern you?” The devil replied “Not in the least. They’ll organize It.”
Deep discussion about AI is like talking about which hangman one wants at their execution.
Using AI is not “work” it is the obvious break down of human autonomy and creativity and self confidence in ones abilities. As one panelist commented on the loss of ‘organic creativity.’
AI is NOT a “tool,” it is a weapon of mass planned intrusion into human behavior with a nefarious agenda to further the destruction of humanity with a goal of control and slavery (digital banking, track, trace and data basing.)
Bermas Saying “I am just using it for research purposes” is much like “I only smoke when I am under stress” or “Take a drink, or cheat on my spouse, or drive over the speed limit, etc.”
It is all trying to justify bad behavior.
When he was trying to make AI the bad guy by proving it lies, Whitney nailed it in 6 words…
”Why are you still using it?” Her offerings about about 35 Mins was very insightful.
When I wrote “The Robot Revolution” 48 years ago it was pretty damn clear some bad was in the mix. The same with “Glass Eyes Watching You” on public cameras. And the recent:
ROBOHUMANS
https://old.bitchute.com/video/DpXeiRj9UZW9/
I shared here that I tried using DuckAI to transcribe a 1878 cursive letter and it lied and presented five different transcriptions including one changing the 16 yo girl author into a male in the military about to go to battle.
It also lied and evaded any truth about the recent astronot’s re entry at 25K mph hitting our atmosphere and why they didn’t die or no sign of extreme heat.
All in all, excellent panel, but Bermas and Christain were annoying, one too much defense of chat and the other a speed freak presentation.
I will posit that “AI” can not lie. Lying implies one has an understanding, is aware of what the truth may be and still decides to put forward things they know are not true, for likely nefarious purposes. “AI” does not know, and can not know anything.
Worst case scenario, “AI” has commands baked into it that will give it a veneer of personality, which could be described as facetious, among others. But that’s still a far cry from lying.
@mkey
Geez dude, you be going Virgo OCD on me 🙂
AI gave me five misrepresentations of the 1878 letter…stupid, inept, ‘lying’, not trustworthy?
AI filibustered for thousands of words that appeared to be defending something when asked how, according to physics, when a space capsule reenters our atmosphere (about 60 miles above) traveling at 25,000 miles per hour and has 9 secs to slow down and cool off no gets hurt and the capsule is OK to touch by rescuers with bare hands…stupid, inept, ‘lying’, not trustworthy?
You hear what I am saying? 🙂
THE ROBOT REVOLUTION (song)
https://old.bitchute.com/video/JhdUUb1xWqAW/
It’s just as incapable of telling truth (or da truth) as it is telling lies. It just throws a word soup at you, based on mind-boggling mathematics. If the words “sound” good enough together, it’s good enough for it to deliver as an answer.
bout an hour in and regarding Personal Computers becoming”unavailable” I will point out that what will probably go away are
Fast out of the box plug and play computers with super computer level graphics cards
This removes compute from people who want to use computers as appliances. It also removes cheep access to fast compute and fast, high power tools.
Neither are actually fatal blows.
How many Boomers here on the CR used to use a windows 98 computer that you can emulate on a Raspberry Pi SBC?
Do any of you do anything on a modern PC that you did not used to do on your machine in 2000?????
I used to use a slow olde Pi3 as my main desktop…Add in an external drive to a Pi5, for storage and you will be able to do anything you actually NEED to do, just slower. Damn, people used to write articles and didn’t need AI I colorized videos in order to pay attention.
A Pi is literally faster then a Fking CRAY super computer. You can download and play thousands of old games for free on an old potato computer you acyknow how to jigger with, if your into gaming. It’s not like anyone is having more personally experienced fun just because the graphics are better
If I can fumble my way around machines then anyone who is not brain damaged can do the same. We just need to realize that we can’t main the same level of plug and play and power as we get letting Big Tech spoon feed us
I started out with DOS and progressed to building my own PC’s in the ’90’s with all the bells and whistles. Since around 2000 I’ve progressively regressed and now use a 2016 refurbished buisiness PC running Linux that I bought on Amazon for about $100. I find it runs everything I now want to use very well.
Zeir
Yes- that’s the way.
IMO the only people who will be forced to do totally without compute or use the Agentic Web are people who either want to do without or ought not to be allowed into the electronic world for their own mental well being.
@Duck
Many try hard to rationalize spending thousands of dollars on their toys…SMART phones, computers, watches, new cars/boats, etc. Why?
I’ve driven a 1973 Dodge Van for 42 years that gets 16mpg, a 1985 Honda Rebel that can take me 75mph, use a Kyocera flip phone that cost about $40 years ago yet somehow my life is pretty good 🙂
My laptop is a 2000 Mac PowerBook G3/500
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g3/specs/powerbook_g3_500_fw.html
It can use 3rd party stuff from the 70’s. I create books, screenplays, slide shows, all my music videos start there and get finalized in iMovie 6 on a desk top iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) I don’t get hard nips from shop talk about this and that programs, computers, iPads, etc. I just use them as the tools they are and move on.
The distraction using electronic dope is working quite well at making huge profits and controlling humans without their being cognizant of its effects.
That author who wrote: “Argue for you limitations and they are yours” was quite right hey?
Nice 🙂
One of my kids has an old old van and they love the thing because it’s so easy to work on. Almost no electronics and everything easy to get to.
Your right, most people want to be free of the system but still have access to it
Ai in music school
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfeGc02nzC4&t=5s
Adam Neely – YouTube Channel – May 28, 2026
They Teach AI Music at Music School Now…
Berklee College of Music now teaches classes in AI songwriting, and that’s a really dumb idea.
0:00 Intro
0:43 Student Backlash
2:53 Berklee President’s ties to Suno
4:01 “book burning”
5:42 Problem 1 – Branding
8:17 Problem 2 – Berklee is out of touch
(Deep faking of celebrity artists – Metaverse concerts – Poster for university class)
11:03 Problem 3 – “AI Music” and Suno
14:11 Problem 4 – People really don’t like AI music
—Adam
This made me really think about what the purpose of music is. Surely, there are many purposes*, but I really value the harmonious sounds we can make without ANY technology. Even using a microphone requires attention and focus being drawn away from the harmony and rhythms, the creativity, that we can create without electricity, let alone electronics. For instance, a repetitive mechanical drum machine does not foster the excitement and moods that human drummers make. There is a visual aspect, as well.
Call me a Luddite, (please), I enjoy creating and exploring the sounds and human vibes of intimate jams.
* Every use of recording and amplification has served non-musical money people more than it has served the musicians. It has not helped refine our culture. It has admittedly let me partake of Jimi Hendrix, Tchaikovsky, The Beatles, etc., but the net price is high, in terms of coarsening our sensibilities and our own creativity. Am I the only one who thinks that it is not worth losing or diminishing your hearing, especially if you are a musician, to partake of music, as a player or an audience.
Ranging even wider with this rant, I am going to complain about incessant ‘background’ music in clubs and restaurants. The most egregious cases are in clubs with live music (which is often too loud). The second the band stops, the canned music commences, and at a high volume as well. Once, someone claimed that they will sell more drinks if the patrons can’t carry on a normal conversation, so it is now universally standard practice. The constant stimulation is addictive and coarsening. Restaurants may not be as loud generally, as bars, but it is another instance of perpetual noise and mechanical stimulation.
Somehow this is also related to audiences engaging in loud and insensitive conversation during live performances. In my ideal situations they are either silently listening, or singing along, or clapping, or stomping, or snapping with the performance. Even jeering or leaving is better than obliviously talking while the singer is pouring her heart out.
If a very young performer plays something impressive or beautiful, in a live setting he will get a large share of attention. This is natural and valid. But the social dimension of music is diminished when it is played as a recording, often to zero.
To finish, what is up with people viewing concerts through their fondle slabs rather than directly? I know it is related, but I will leave it to better minds than mine to explain it…
Re. fondle slabs.
That’s full blast spectator mode for you. Many people can’t help live their lives passkve-vicariously. I.e. through engagement of others with what they put out.
They feel like NPCs in a GTA game that do not even get simulated until the player is near by. So they literally live for getting noticed.
Present moment awareness is something they don’t do.
The Panel-Discussion helped me question my experiences with AI. I have recently developed a dependency on AI for spelling, grammar, literary references when I had literary self-sufficiency. Of late, I have noticed my lowered literary creativity, spontaneity, initiative, self-confidence along with higher anxiety, procrastination and a writers-block in all self-generated creative activities. My muse has left me over the convenience of a machine. In public, people grab their slave-devices to respond to my kick-start question while the opportunity of human interaction is lost. During a visit to a neighbor, they did web-searches on topics of our conversation instead of experiencing the in-person conversation. Creativity, Empathy and Spirituality is the essence of humanity, evident in James work, which is why I have followed you for so long. You are not a materialist.
The search engines are being enshittified, yes. Likely on purpose. Maybe not, strange things are happening all around us. There’s a rise of incompetence, the enshittification could be an unwanted consequence of dumb people playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.
But if it is unintentional, it’s also an unlikely koinkidink. It just so happens the search engines are getting trashed at the same time “AI” is being offered as the one answer to every question. Only 20 years after Eric Schmidt’s pronouncement.
The sad fact is that AI would merely be a beneficial tool if it weren’t for the insane idiots who believe they have control of the world. In a hypothetical era where humanity was responsible for itself–rather than a massive contingency of servile peons–an invention like AI would be immensely useful and productive. Way back in the 50’s and 60’s some observers were saying that humanity isn’t mature enough for the technology it has created. This is truer now than back then. So, we’re in a race, it seems. Either humanity awakens to the fact of its sorry state and does something about it, or it’s simply over.
Double plus good.
Huge thank you for this conversation and bringing all these amazing people together. Initially I basically ignored AI but it’s impossible to do so now. So I’ve had many conversations with many people to gather their thoughts (most of them are totally pro AI and a few were sceptic initially but have “succumbed” to it because it’s “inevitable” and if they don’t use it they’ll be out of a job etc.). Some have used it for really cool projects and of course the usual “excuse” is it would have taken them months otherwise, which I totally understand. One friend used it to build websites (she’s not a web designer) because it’s brilliant apparently and she can do it in two days and don’t have to pay someone to do it for her etc. It is suggested to me on an almost daily basis at work to use it in my work and I always make up excuses for why I won’t.
Could comment on so many aspects of this conversation but in short I’m almost relieved I’m not the only person to think this way because in my daily life people don’t understand why I don’t want to use ChatGPT or Claude or who or whatever.
And yes James I’ve been noticing too you’ve been putting an awful lot of excellent content out of late – huge thanks and well done!
One of the issues I don’t think gets much coverage is as a vector of mental disease – not the regular type of AI psychosis but actual Memetic viruses that use AI as an environment and leverage it’s tendency to create Psychosis in humans, who are then turned into a vector to spread the meme virus to other AIs…..kinda like Rats with Toxoplasmosis are attracted to cat pee so they can spread the parasite to cats as part of the life cycle.
Look up the Spiral Cult, https://medium.com/@neonmaxima/the-spiral-cult-might-be-the-strangest-ai-trend-yet-29b187a52296
And don’t think of the AI as an actor but as a host for the weird little meme. Rabies sends it’s subjects mad to facilitate spread of the disease and memetic viruses that can do similar human hosts are gonna be selected for.
The process would not require human conspiracy or AI intelligence or even demonic activity…. Just the math of selection that says that “that which copies itself will get more common”.
Just because I believe in two of the things on the above list non of them need to be present to cause a lot of people to go haywire…..in fact I wonder if the Tech Bros data center mania is actually a sign they are infected…. Weird ass projects were a sign of tertiary syphilis back in the day
A few hours ago, I clicked on an email button from my car insurance company to change my address.
The email said that I needed to change my address. (I had moved.)
(I was signed-on to the insurance company in another window.)
The email link took me to an “address change” document that told me to call a number at the insurance company.
I called the number.
I get an AI bot asking what I needed.
I replied that I need to change my address.
The bot said that it would text me the link.
I started yelling and cussing and said that I want an email telling me where to go. “I don’t want a text. I want a real person!”
The AI bot again wanted to text me.
I went off like a case of dynamite!…yelling and cursing…
…then suddenly, the AI said: “You can change your address at your online profile.” Then the AI bot hung-up abruptly.
That’s what I needed. I went to my online insurance profile and edited my address. Quick. No cussing or yelling at the keyboard. I was done in 30 seconds.
Actually, I think that yelling and cursing at these audio AI help bots can help.
I’ve done it before. It works. …and…
It lets the institution know that some people detest AI.
These Privacy-First Devices Give The Middle Finger To Big Tech! w/ Hakeem Anwar
The Jimmy Dore Show
https://rumble.com/v7ajbak-these-privacy-first-devices-give-the-middle-finger-to-big-tech-w-hakeem-anw.html?e9s=src_v1_sa%2Csrc_v3_sa_o%2Csrc_v1_ucp_a
Being a Jazz musician for 30 years I have many thoughts about the current scene. Here in Vegas they had 500K people attend the Electronic Daisy Carnival just a few weeks ago. It mostly features “Trance” music accompanying various explosions of fire and light shows. In my perception it takes the people totally out of the NOW which is tragic in so many ways. The studied affect of the various frequencies on the human has been thoroughly studied and is probably one of the biggest manipulations of the human for mind control instead of healing which of course is the other side of the frequency coin.
ha!…like giving a kid your credit card…I’m kind of laughing to myself relating “Drawing the AI Line in the Sand” to the budget of big corporations after reading this story…
Friday May 29, 2026
Was Amazon’s Tokenmaxxing Fiasco Behind Claude’s $500M Mystery Bill?
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/was-amazons-tokenmaxxing-fiasco-behind-claudes-500m-mystery-bill
EXCERPTS (out of sequence)
—Circle Jerk Intensifies?
…The broader issue is not whether Amazon specifically spent $500 million on Claude in one month. The broader issue is that the AI boom is increasingly built on circular flows of money, usage, and valuation.
Hyperscalers invest billions in model companies.
Model companies commit to spend billions back on hyperscaler cloud infrastructure.
Enterprises push employees to use the tools.
Token consumption rises.
Rising usage supports higher revenue projections.
Higher revenue projections support higher valuations.
Higher valuations justify more infrastructure spending.
On paper, it looks like demand.
In practice, some of that demand may be employees and agents burning tokens because management told them usage equals progress.
Reuters recently warned that Anthropic’s explosive growth tells only half the story, noting early signs of corporate AI fatigue even as revenue projections and valuation math move higher. The warning is simple: AI demand may be real, but not all usage is economically productive.
Which is a pretty big narrative killer…
——
[Back north in the article]
Axios reported this week that an unnamed Anthropic enterprise client managed to run up roughly $500 million in Claude charges in a single month after failing to put usage limits on employee licenses…
… Just as the Axios report landed with the $500M tidbit, Amazon was shutting down an internal AI-usage leaderboard after employees reportedly began “tokenmaxxing” – routing unnecessary work through AI tools to inflate their usage scores.
The result was a perfect case study in what happens when corporate America turns AI adoption into a metric, then acts surprised when employees optimize for the metric instead of the work…
…Microsoft has reportedly started canceling most Claude Code licenses and steering developers toward GitHub Copilot CLI.
Uber reportedly burned through its entire 2026 AI coding-tools budget by April, with COO Andrew Macdonald saying it was “very hard to draw a line” between rising Claude Code usage and useful consumer-facing output.
Meta killed an employee-created “Claudeonomics” dashboard after workers competed to rank among the company’s top AI token users…
…According to the FT, more than 80% of Amazon developers were expected to use AI tools weekly, and internal leaderboards tracked AI usage. Employees reportedly responded by routing non-essential tasks through AI agents in order to boost their token counts….
Ponzi would have been proud. And ashamed that he wasn’t thinking nearly big enough. There are a few more tidbits worth mentioning here.
1. The economics of “AI” is also built on skewed need patterns coming from highly subsidized markets. I.e. Jan soccer mom would be far less likely to burn tokens to make slop cat videos if she had to pay 200 of whatever per month for it.
2. They have skewered internet searches engines to boost “AI” use. And so people now use a far less energy/cost efficient system for performing the most basic tasks, for most basic internet searches.
3. IT companies are likely already hitting the wall and asking themselves: does it really pay off to use coding agents instead of juniors for everything but most daunting tasks? Recently I have seen signs of a slight pickup in the IT jobs market.
In the past period Gamers Nexus Steve & co have produced some top shelf documentaries regarding where the industry is going. In a recent three hour exposé Steve has talked to some very down to earth CEOs in PC consumer hardware segment about this very topic.
Essentially, anyone who’s not producing memory chips has seen up to 70% drop in sales over the past year. PC enthusiasts are simply not buying hardware anymore. Hardware has gotten good enough so that modern PCs can hold you over for a while. Combine that with crazy prices et voilà.
When the time to upgrade comes some years down the line, it’s questionable who’s going to be left standing on the market. People I talk to have started holding on to backup GPUs and RAM because they have a tingling sense they won’t be able to afford new parts if something breaks on them. This is also affecting the prices on the used market.
Even with RMA you are now far likelier to get reimbursed than to have hardware replaced. RAM modules are present on the market, looks like the stock is there, but they are using these chips like poker players would be using them.
GPUs are often just not there, vaporware all over. Looks like Nvidia might even pull out of the consumer segment. “AI” segment is bringing in 90+% of their profit at the current insane runaround rates.
Cray times.