Your name used to be worth 10 cents. Now its value is $1MM because of AI?????

Photo above - Neo, demonstrating his spam prevention powers when AI marketing is perfected

I was shocked – shocked I tell you – when I was told in younger days that my address was worth 10 cents to advertisers. Now it's 2026 and I get alarmist updates from Norton warning that my email address and phone number are available in dozens of places on the web. Norton says if I upgrade my protection plan that this can all be fixed. I doubt it.

I am amazed to hear that my name/address/phone/browsing history will be worth $1MM to the AI world. (see link below). This is not an annual value, however. It’s a lifetime-60 year estimate. Evidently when AI gets ahold of my stuff, it will have surefire ways to either sell me $1MM of stuff I don’t need, or raise the prices on stuff that I do need by $1MM.

But there's a problem – I don’t have $1MM. I don’t even have the $350,000 needed to cover my share of the $39 trillion national debt. Anyway, how much will $1MM be worth after 60 years of inflation? Ten cents?

This million dollar man AI theory is why billion dollar data centers are springing up like weeds. Everywhere from Argentina to Zimbabwe. In America, new data centers are usually exempt from local property taxes for at least 10-20 year. And the demand for local water and electricity threaten to impoverish nearby residents. The browsing history of rural folk is unlikely to be worth $1MM if they can’t afford their monthly electric, water and gas bills.

In related news, Aaron Levie (link below) makes a convincing case that AI CEOs are experiencing mass hallucinations – just like AI programs themselves. About value of all those data centers and spam/marketing overloads. In fact, if you were to ask Anthropic’s CEO (Dario Amodi) why he keeps pouring billions into his hobby, he’d probably tell your that he asked “Claude” how to get rich off this stuff. And Claude showed him the path forward, even though AI can’t create a fake photograph with the correct number of fingers.

Of course, all these AI shortcomings will be fixed in the final version/update, right? And THEN we can all start getting fleeced out of our $1MM. Those of data centers from Iceland to Hooterville to Zimbabwe could start to pay for themselves.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


How Big Tech will wring $1M from each person — and what it’ll do with your private info

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/big-tech-wring-1m-person-113000899.html

https://www.inc.com/chloe-aiello/this-ceo-says-tech-execs-are-prone-to-ai-psychosis-luckily-he-also-knows-an-easy-fix/91350992

Why Tech Execs Are ‘Prone to AI Psychosis' (and What to Do About It)