AI is raising electricity prices, raising the price of almost EVERYTHING electronic (because everything these days needs RAM), and has started to replace cognitive jobs (programming, legal work, financial analysis, customer service, medical analysis, writing of most kinds, etc) in earnest -- much faster than you probably think.
I love many of AI's benefits. I'm not sure we're ready for (or are even aware of yet) many of AI's downsides.
We'll see. It's going to be an interesting time going forward.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/880812/ramageddon-ram-shortage-memory-crisis-price-2026-phones-laptops
Maybe you’ve heard: Memory is expensive now. The price of RAM has tripled, quadrupled, even sextupled depending on the type of chip, all because AI companies are gobbling it up.
But maybe you’ve thought: I don’t buy memory sticks! I don’t build my own PCs! It won’t affect me, right?
I’m here to tell you RAM is coming for your wallet anyhow.
Do you have a phone in your pocket you’d like to upgrade in the next few years? Fancy a game console or handheld? A laptop, perhaps? Will you need a new router, whether you’re purchasing outright or renting from your ISP? Each of these devices is expected to have shortages, price hikes, or both in 2026. And even if you don’t plan to buy, you depend on goods and services from others who’ll be paying more to upgrade their devices.
“RAMageddon” is only getting worse, and there’s no immediate end in sight. Everything that has a computer inside depends on RAM, and almost everything has a computer in it now: farm tractors, hospital equipment, your TV set-top box. RAM is the short-term memory of a device, and AI especially needs lots to juggle all the data it’s processing. And most of that RAM comes from just three companies that are happily prioritizing the AI gold rush over everything else.
We may never know how many products were truly delayed or canceled due to RAM — like how Nvidia may skip releasing a gaming GPU for the first time in 30 years, or how Meta may not release a single VR headset this year and plans to charge a premium when they return in 2027, or how Sony’s next PlayStation may get pushed to 2029 because of RAM.
But we do know that RAMageddon is coming for your phone next.
(more; no paywall)
TBH. Almost every single issue they’re pretending now came out of left field as far as tech components are concerned was known about for years prior. People were sounding the alarm the power grid was in a dismal state and not ready for any serious strain well over a decade ago. Investments and Modernization that should have occurred didn’t. The Hippies, Environmentalists and Anti-Nuclear Boomers killed Nuclear for decades. Which hampered power generation. Likely setting back tech development truth be told. As a fundamental metric for gauging Economic activity is the price of power. Low cost power means high economic activity and increased pace of development
The Chip and Electronic Parts Production Companies refused to expand their lines and invest. Because it would damage the shareholders earnings and the Corporate Management Bonuses. As well as render them unable to price gouge in the long predicted squeeze.
If you’ve read an article online at any sort of mainstream adjacent outlet. Odds are fairly likely it was majority AI written. If there is a real human writer or editor involved in the article for any reason. They were likely in charge of editing for flow and or catching any glaringly obvious AI hallucinations in the output. To keep up the illusion they still have a massive staff of human writers.
I built my own computer about 13 years ago. It has all the RAM I need. It shows no signs of not being able to do all I want right now. Except I'd need to be a billionaire to afford enough processors and RAM to do a personal AI like I would want to have. What I want is a personal AI that doesn't connect to the internet at all. I want it to be trained on all the books and documents I have in my possession. But it would gag an ordinary computer just to intake a single one of my heavy reference books. And I have many thousands of books, mostly heavy duty reference books.
So I'll just use what I have until something better comes along at a good price.
AND I am doing EXACTLY the same thing!!!!!!!!! I am NOT buying the HIGH-END ram which is extremely expensive but something I can get along with until this AI SHITSA gets the smell off of it...
People/Companies wanting to move to AI is right now just a fad and the datacenters are projecting "somewhere over the rainbow" type of shista!!!!!
This whole AI thing will die out soon enough because there is "NO HUMAN INTERACTION"...and that comes from my Computer Science Professor that AI will be looked at the means to end all but it is still a piece of code...that is all!!!! And that Ladies & Gentlemen is ANSWER TO ALL OF THIS NONSENSE!!!
If you don't mind sharing, what OS are you using?
Windows 10 right now, but I have Windows XP in a virtual machine. Also, I'm dual-booting an old XP laptop with Linux Mint as a test. I won't go to Windows 11, as my hardware won't run it. I have some necessary software that must run in Windows, so I will have to allow for that if I go all the way to Linux. I am still looking at the various distros.
So am I!
I do enjoy my MINT desktop, and I also got to try Kubuntu with the famous "KDE Plasma" desktop recently! I suggest you give that one a try as well.
I have also tried Puppy Dog Linux a little bit, as it can run from a USB stick on anyone's computer.
I guess I better buy an extra cheep one,just in case.
No more utility bills for "ether"
u/#catdance
There was a guy named Ted who spoke about this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm
"Everything you care about."
There are lots of more important things to care about. Sure it's a problem, but the hyperbole is hubristic.
Well, I'd agree, but it's from a tech site, focused on tech issues, so I don't think that characterization ("Everything you care about") is meant literally and certainly not spiritually. "Every tech hardware thingy you care about" would be more appropriate, but the condensed version fits given the intended audience.
I suppose that's fair. On a tech blog my comment is pedantic virtue-signal. But GAW is a little different: here we might be thinking all the tech is secretly being routed to medbeds, which would be awesome.
I'm the meantime I guess I'm lucky I just got a new phone before the mobile carrier adjusted their prices. But I'm stuck with a slow laptop. Guess I'll have to ride it out unless I can maybe find some overlooked ram bargains at the salvation army stores.
And SSDs, both are ridiculous.
I just got an Asus NUC about a month ago with 8gb of DDR5. Looking to double it with another 8 gig stick was hard to find, nothing locally and pricey on Amazon.
Also wanted to get a 2.5" SSD for extra storage, but the extra price on them wasn't worth it to me.
It came with 11, depending on how my weekend goes, I want to try installing Pop_OS.
Prices will settle back down at some point. It was what, maybe a decade or so ago when BTC miners drove up GPU prices.
maybe my 2 cards 2gb each will be priceless, better than bitcoin, lol.
I have a spare backup Galaxy phone. The problem is that they keep changing the technology. I don't think my A12 even recognizes 5G. And the battery will die eventually.