Interestingly, I was in a lab yesterday and met a PhD student whose thesis was largely about using LLMs to fake fingerprints and retinal scans.

This is why Monopolies and Oligopolies SUCK.

They lobby the governments of the world to not be held accountable and it is in their best interest to limit production to raise demand. Without competitors why should they lower supplies or increase capacity?

Infact, the mem makers got busted3x times for price fixing in the past 25 years! Micron or Hynix even stated they do not want to increase production in case the AI fad dies and they are suck with an abundance of supply.

The US also has a far right wing government now where nvidia, sumsung, and others paid for Trumps ballroom when the East Wing was demoed so the FCC won't do anything now. ... money well spent.

Well the demand for RAM is due to clouds providers buying blades.

Besides memory they also need SSDs to boot and run programs.

100% this.

This was my thought as well.

A friend of mine recently left a senior role, largely b/c of frustration with the firehose of junior AI-slop pull requests.

The majority of ads I see on YouTube these days are AI-slop deepfake celebrity endorsements, obviously-fake (and dangerous) medical scams, weight-loss salts, workout plans, etc. etc. I don't see anything in the CEO statement about that.

The "monthly question volume has collapsed [to] about 300" appears to be an artifact of the last category being the current month, January 2026, even though we're only in the 5th day as of this posting. (Specifically, 321 as of Jan-5 @ 10:30 AM EDT). I expect the number will be in the 2,000+ range by the end of the month, matching both recent trends and a simple extrapolation from the first few days. (Which would still be the worst full month on record.)

They just did. Jobs are still being created.

A recovery more like it

First off AI needs to sit in a desk and be watched for productivity. How do we know they are really working if we don't badge swipe and see them?

AI needs full collaboration and creativity that hallway moments and using shared poopy toilets, which brings in that real company value. It can't happen.

Just ask any pointless HR rep or CEO on this?!

I am sure my dedicated 5080 with cuda can run circles around your mac

We are also (I assume) college educated professionals. Not the guys with hs diplomas being fired for being 4 minutes late from their potty break at Walmart where they are treated like kids and can't have their phones out etc. all for 35k a year.

These are American statistics of course. Terrible management who are a different breed rule blue collar jobs. It goes back to slavery and class structure for these roles.

Only 25% are college educated. Terrible work environments motives my education

Is it? Or were many wanting revenge and payback for increasing salaries since 2019 and doing remote work?

The frustrating thing is wages were constant from 2000 to 2019 for most folks. A few professionals they did skyrocket which skewed some data. As a system administrator 75k remained constant for 18 years! Now it is finally like 115k, but adjusted for inflation you are screwed if you tried to buy a home or rent today.

75k could get you a mcmansion in 2000. Today it is not enough for a starter home, even in an affordable area. It is 1 bedroom apartment only.

Meanwhile, CEOs and leadership are furious and think prices need to return not realizing at all that $ sign doesn't have the purchasing power it did for so many years. So yes people are angry at both sides.

You are in a minority.

Statistics I read is 75% of people hate their jobs. Be greateful!

I wonder if it has always been like this or were there times when that number was much lower?