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by Eisenstein 356 days ago
A top of the line consumer desktop, the Mac Pro, costs $7000. The commonly acknowledged first non-mechanical computer, the ENIAC, cost $400,000, which adjusted for inflation is $6,594,153 (see note). Will AI models follow the same pricing trajectory? Probably not but they no longer cost even close to $100 billion.

Note: 1946 CPI = 19.5, 2025 CPI = 321.465 which makes for an increase of 16.49.
2 comments
ayewo 356 days ago
It seems all you did was use this formula:

CPI{2025} / CPI{1946} * Price{1946} = Price{2025}

to obtain the price adjusted for inflation?

That is the only way I was able to arrive at the same number you got: $6,594,153.846. TIL.

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marcosdumay 356 days ago
> Will AI models follow the same pricing trajectory?

If the article is correct, and this is the best way to make them, their price will explode.

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mr_toad 355 days ago
Step 1: Spend hundreds of billions on AI

Step 2: ?

Step 3: Profit.

It’s not enough to have the biggest model, or the best model per dollar spent, you still need to figure out how to make money with it. It’s not clear than vastly increased expenditure will produce a good ROI.

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