The Astonishing Decline in AI Costs
GaryMarcus · x · 2026-07-19
A chart compares the price decline of PCs versus AI/LLMs, concluding that the price of intelligence is plummeting. AI costs have dropped over a 3-year period at a rate comparable to what PCs experienced over 15 years.
The graph plots three curves: a PC price index, an LLM model price index, and a quality-adjusted "price-to-intelligence ratio." The author's point is that AI isn't just getting smarter; it's becoming incredibly cheap, incredibly fast.
More from Infra
- Oracle Q1: Triple-digit cloud infrastructure growth as AI demand booms — DavidLinthicum · 2026-09-11
- SF Compute founder: buying compute is 'an absolutely awful experience' right now — IgorCarron · 2026-09-11
- SmolVM open-sources persistent computer infrastructure for agents that outlive chat sessions — aniketmaurya · 2026-09-11
- PyTorch Day Korea 2026 launches first offline conf, CFP closes Sept 13 — PyTorch · 2026-09-11
- Local LLM server dilemma: 4x CMP-170HX (price up 53% in 20 days) vs Mac Studio M5 Ultra — rumboll · 2026-09-11
- llama.cpp lands Flash Attention tuning for RDNA4, big prefill gains on AMD — pmttyji · 2026-09-11