AI Boom Creates Billionaires, Not Solutions for the Rest of Us
The Financial Times reports an 'AI boom' is set to add $500 billion to US tech billionaires' net worth in 2025 (FT, Dec 26, 2025). This staggering wealth accumulation for a select few—personified by figures like Elon Musk and Jensen Huang—is presented as a natural outcome of technological progress. Absent from this glowing forecast is any mention of the concurrent erosion of labor power,
persistent economic inequality magnified by automation, or the environmental cost of this 'boom.' One might wonder if the 'AI boom' is primarily a 'billionaire boom,' neatly repackaged as collective societal advancement. While we're told to brace for job displacement from AI, these same architects of the future are simply accumulating more capital, further concentrating power. The system works,
after all, if your definition of 'working' only includes the very top.