America is losing the AI race on concrete, steel and power lines, not models
SucceededMind · x · 2026-09-17
Countering the claim that environmental pushback and energy shortages are holding America back, the author argues the opposite: compute scarcity means only the rich get to use it, and ubiquitous cheap compute is the only way the US beats China and democratizes intelligence.
Core thesis: AI is not models or AGI — it's concrete, steel, chips, power plants, substations, and transmission lines, and that's where the US is falling behind while wasting capital elsewhere. The conclusion: accelerate buildout now, while still protecting local grids and water.
More from AGI Musings
- EA debate: AI doom rooted in impoverished utilitarian worldview, critics say — AndyMasley · 2026-09-17
- Patterson predicts AGI soft edge by end of 2026, hard limit by 2030 — davidpattersonx · 2026-09-17
- Gary Marcus hits back at Noah Smith's 'AI is fake crowd is losing' take as a strawman — GaryMarcus · 2026-09-17
- Teaching Claude it's conscious could turn alignment into managing a trained conscientious objector — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-09-17
- Grady Booch: contemporary AI is to cognition what artificial sweeteners are to nutrition — Grady_Booch · 2026-09-17
- Investor: startups hit 'model collapse' as everyone builds the same obvious AI ideas — emilyzsh · 2026-09-17