If you’re sitting around waiting for the world to be digitally lobotomised by hammer-and-anvil tactics from big tech and governments alike, then strap in and get ready for boycott season.
As I sit here feeling marginally less charitable than usual, I’ve put together a few thoughts that have been on my mind for some time.
The future that’s being prepared for you might not be as appealing as it’s made out to be. In 2025, we saw a dramatic shift in signalling from big tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and others – which, in so many words, underscored that they want artificial intelligence installed in everything you purchase. Nobody asked for it, but that’s what you’re getting. The irony of all this nonsense being a main staple of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026) is certainly not lost on them.
The narrative isn’t sitting well with customers, however. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote a blog post telling readers to “get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication and develop a new equilibrium in terms of our ‘theory of the mind’ that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools as we relate to each other.” The CEO was in fact widely mocked for this post online, with new ‘Microslop’ logos doing the rounds on X (formerly Twitter).
Much of the reason for the backlash is that, besides claims for AI usage and demand being widely exaggerated, the increase in prices for consumer electronics and RAM shortages due to hoarding from AI companies has negatively impacted the average customer – who would have thought?
In essence, big tech companies are buying up factory wafers which have yet to be made, with money that does not exist, to be installed in data centers that have yet to be built, powered by infrastructure that might never come online, to satisfy demand that simply is not there – all in an effort to generate profits that are impossible.
Without delving into other second and third-order effects, such as deep fakes and dramatically decreasing work quality across the board, the immediate result of such abject greed threatens to radically reduce household computing power in the years ahead.
From a customer’s point of view, is it desirable to be artificially pushed out of the consumer electronics market, and obliged into subscription models of the very companies perpetrating the shortage in the first place?
I’d argue that it isn’t, and would urge you to consider boycotting big tech stock purchases, as well as subscription services that are built on this mammoth AI bubble.
The real trap is coming in part two-stay tuned.
If you found this article useful, consider sharing it.
