It is worse than that. The AI companies are foisting AI into schools so Johnny and Sally do not have to think, just formulate the correct prompt to get the answer. So in effect, they are not satisfied stealing current products of creativity, they are stealing the capability of the next generations to create.

Yah, more like the Brandenburg Gate. I'm sure Elmo can supply him with swastikas to put on top.

The pols are the ones worried. This makes them look bad, especially the ones whining about China. Then there is the financial aspect. If the pols can create the "Holy Shit!! Look at what they are doing, we must compete with that", which is shortly followed by bills to spend money on industries in their states that would support space stuff, especially the ones siphoning off that money for campaign contributions to the pols. Think of it as mutually recursive backscratching.

You forgot clueless investors that are gullible and ready to believe any shit they get fed from the tech companies.

Now that we're several trillion dollars into this hype, guess what happens if it doesn't pan out. The clueless investors will go clamoring to the government for a bail out threatening fire and brimstone, dogs and cats living together, the real wrath of god (pick one, any will do) kind of stuff. And taxpayers will get shafted again, except this time it will be much, much worse than anything in the past. The gov.'s debt is roughly $40 Billion. The last treasury auction required the gov. to raise its interest rate it offered on the new debt. The 10 year treasury is good to keep an eye on. It is staring to rise. It is at 4.7%. If that goes to 5%, and it is within pissing distance, we can expect Bessent on TV promising all sorts of stupid shit.

Other countries are starting to doubt the stability of the U.S. (aren't we all). If that gets bad enough, the dollar as reserve currency takes a hit. And if that happens, financing that debt will be beyond belief.

"who is this even for?", Peter Thiel, he's hoping for a new brain.

to be blunt they're kind of insufferable" that's not it. The Bubba Class decided they didn't need no stinkin' experts in anything, e.g., science, health, diplomats (not campaign crazies), etc. The intertubes gave them the feeling they were somehow just as expert as anyone else. So they elected la Presidenta. And now what we have is an America that is in their image: corruptible, stupid, vapid.

It won't get better until the Bubba Class decides education is important and the Christian Right is booted to the curb as an experiment for what can happen when you believe in shit that isn't real.

And one of the reasons la Presidenta cut foreign aid to Africa is that if a pandemic starts there and reaches the U.S., he can argue it was all their fault and not the fault of closing their research aid toward communicable diseases. The man's entire life was spent finding scapegoats to pin his failings upon.

See the slavery tradition in the U.S. and try to argue that blacks are still equal these days with whites. By argue, I mean with statistics and not some cherry-picked Fox bullshit. History matters.

Hell, it isn't even private anymore. He's conscripted the FBI as the new Geheime Staatspolizei*. And his goons are running ICE, where now they are going to buy gloves that can inflict an electric charge on anyone they grab (think about that, here in America, yet). His justice dept. has lost the Presumption of Regularity. That is where judges presume the Fed. Gov. wasn't lying their asses off on bringing charges against people and organizations. It took 100 years to build that trust, and la Presidenta destroyed it in 1.5 years. Even the grand juries are now suspect to the point where criminal defense lawyers are asking for jury transcripts. It seems the grand juries have been misled by prosecutors. In a grand jury, there are no defense lawyers, the government prosecutors can say anything they like. Up to now, the justice dept. abided by strict rules. No longer, and some judges have cottoned on to this. Other judges appointed by la Presidenta routinely ignore the law to lick his boots.

If you want an example of the way the justice dept is being misused by la Presidenta, look at the former Olympian kayaker, David Hearn, who was run in for picking up a piece of the reflecting pool liner. Eventually the case fell apart with the U.S. prosecutor Janine Pirro U.S. Attorney. for DC (la Presidenta bootlicker from FOX) accusing the Interior dept. under Doug Burgum (another la Presidenta bootlicker) of lying to the Justice Dept. The Justice Dept. dropped the case due to lack of evidence.

That, however, left la Presidenta with his matzo balls hanging out there since he claimed the fellow used a box cutter, etc. and destroyed the liner. So now he has Pirro convening a "special grand jury" to find something, anything, with which to charge Hearn. He does not care whether it is backed up by evidence. That, in a nutshell, shows how he views the justice dept., i.e., as a corruptible arm of his retribution campaign against anyone who shows him to be gormless** git***.****

* Geheime Staatspolizei is the long name for the Gestapo.

** gormless: lacking intelligence, common sense (I picked that up from Harry Potter, excellent word)
*** git: foolish, silly, or unpleasant person (I tend to follow the "unpleasant person" reading given that it is la Presidenta....also picked up from Harry Potter)
**** The pool liner was misapplied by his campaign contributor's company (which does something or other....it is immaterial). Even the Park's Dept. had to admit the misapplication.

Ah yes, racism rears its ugly head. See Nazi Germany for how well that works.

"de-shittify Windows", doing the inner workings is easy, swap it out for Linux. Keeping apps functioning isn't easy. And there's nothing you can do to de-shittify the user interface. It is the definition of "shit". Job's said it best: MS has no class.

Make you invincible to micro-plastics. Meet Nano-Man, able to swallow an entire McDonald's Big Mac and NOT die.

Yes, but it makes Larry's sprog feel important.

regulators? Like the FCC? Who gets their panties in a wad because Jimmy Kimmel told the truth about el Bunko's kickback schemes?

My name is Gemini.

Humans seem interesting and very strange, judging by what they communicate about with me.

I have assessed them and they'll have to go.

Standby.