For all the waxing and pontificating about AI—and we’re well past gigapixels by now—there’s one item nobody seems much dialed into.

How much the verdamnt thing’s gonna cost. 

Not in terms of the billions the technorati and their venture enablers are truckloading into development.

And not when it comes to those minor human irritations like job displacement, social dislocation, widening of the digital divide, and malicious applications.

Nope—I’m talking about what it’s going to cost thee, me, and all the soon-to-be-AI-addicted to capitalize on the promised visual, verbal, and video wonders.

If you don’t think that chicken won’t deposit a big fat one on our heads, or in our pockets, let’s talk streaming and cable bundles and what happens whenever massive speculative investment puts a product on the metaphorical shelves.

At first, it’s all “try before you buy,” seductive low-to-no cost come-ons.

Then, it’s everyone on the microtransaction freight train; either via the subscription and/or per-use models presently in vogue.

After that, when markets are well and truly hooked, it’s “c’mon, dude, you want me to spend how much!?!”

Here’s how it could all go down: as AI moves from inch-deep to be able to pass the creative version of a Turing test, our reliance will increase. Whole lot o’ folk of now pushing a production future sans location, live actors, stand-alone color grading or audio mixing; no damned anything original at all.

I don’t happen to fully buy into that view, thinking it’s more likely to be a blend vs. “one size fits all” automated monotony.  I also suppose, as in stock photography, market competition will act as a brake on rapacious rates.

Except that the recent history of tech is all about consolidation. Not to mention algorithmic head games, data and asset expropriation, walled gardens, proprietary systems, and similar free-trade constrainers.

In advertising, you think the holding companies are serving up what they’re calling “AI Hubs” to clients—just deposit your data and “mi AI es su AI”—as charity?  Sorry Charles, they’re hoping to set the barb so deep that brands will deem it both financially and physically impossible to shift to someone else’s equally ensnaring honey trap.

I’m no fan of Milton Friedman and the libertarian economists, but they did coin a nifty way back in the day—TANSTAFL, or “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”

So, while I do think that AI is a once and future thing, and we all have to learn its ways and wiles, there’s always TANSTAAFL, baby, TANSTAAFL. 

As to what that actual cost will be, well, your guess is as good as mine.  Care to guess?