AI Is Heavy Industry: Downstream Gets a Glut, Upstream Gets Scarcity
StewartalsopIII · x · 2026-09-30
A widely shared thread argues AI is heavy industry: whatever AI does well gets rapidly commoditized — first copywriting, then HTML — democratized, commodified, and eventually demonetized to near-free.
The core thesis: downstream of AI you get a glut, upstream you get scarcity. Content creation is becoming a glut while distribution channels still capture value. The author argues this pattern will generalize across the economy: adoption will take time but feels inevitable, implying a much larger economy where humans gradually vacate work downstream of AI.
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