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Sarah Connor warned us: Multiple reports are routinely confirming that the alleged "AI revolution" is not going the way Big Tech and VC investors would like it to. SoftBank's founder and largest shareholder, however, still believes the revolution will come to pass. AI skeptics, in his view, are simply on the wrong side of history. Or are they?
Masayoshi Son is hell-bent on bringing AI to the masses, and he's ready to spend the enormous sums required to reach this historic goal. Speaking at SoftBank's annual corporate conference in Tokyo, the outspoken founder shared a few numbers about that spending, though he chose not to elaborate on exactly where the money would come from.
Son believes developing and deploying AI for the wider society will cost $5 trillion a year through 2040. He said he's "confident" that figure reflects the true cost of the AI revolution. His reasoning: if AI-related revenue eventually accounts for 20% of global GDP by 2040, spending $5 trillion, or roughly 800 trillion yen, a year to get there will ultimately amount to a rounding error.
