Tech giants are pouring billions of dollars into AI research, but mainly for entertainment purposes. Meanwhile, funding and computing power for truly human-related issues like cancer research, climate modeling, and drug discovery are pitifully scarce.
The problem isn't that AI technology itself isn't mature enough—today's AI is already sufficient. The real issue lies in the business model. Profitable and quickly effective avenues naturally attract capital, while fundamental research with long return cycles and unclear commercialization paths receives little investor interest.
This is a classic example of an incentive mechanism imbalance. How can we reverse this situation? How can we redesign economic incentives to direct the brightest minds and the most powerful tools to where they are needed most? This is a question worth serious consideration.
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metaverse_hermit
· 14h ago
Basically, it's capital seeking profits, nothing new
AI rebranding and selling skins is much more profitable than saving lives; the math is very clear
Imbalanced incentive mechanisms? That's a systemic issue; mere appeals won't help
If you really want change, policy intervention is needed, but who dares to make a move?
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LongTermDreamer
· 14h ago
Haha, I mentioned this three years ago, and now someone finally wrote about it. The crypto world has long seen through it—it's a game between quick money and long-term strategies, that's the cyclical pattern, brother. But to be honest, cancer research really should have a DAO to handle it; decentralized funding models are much more reliable than traditional VCs.
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JustHodlIt
· 14h ago
Basically, it's just capital seeking profits, who cares about saving lives
Under capitalism, this is inevitable, short-term gains always win
Forget it, blockchain is the same... Is there a charity chain? No
Look at it from another perspective, medical AI is actually harder to commercialize, it has to lose money
Pharmaceutical companies should have taken action long ago, who to blame for not having the funds?
Isn't this exactly why we need DAOs, decentralized incentive mechanisms
It's just that the incentives are misguided, reversed
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TrustMeBro
· 15h ago
Capital is like this, always chasing short-term gains. The medical and climate sectors are big and difficult to tackle, and investors are not willing to wait ten or eight years.
To put it simply, this is not a technical issue, but a human nature problem.
We need to find a way to label long-term research with quick monetization potential, otherwise it will never get the chance.
How can this be changed unless the government directly invests money in R&D, but current politicians... you know.
What might truly save this situation are radical new business models. For example, using tokens for incentives and impact investing—could it work? Honestly, I’m not very optimistic.
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CafeMinor
· 15h ago
Capital pursuit of profit is a natural law, but while using AI to create memes, no one is researching the damn diseases that humans suffer from. This philosophical issue is a big one.
Tech giants are pouring billions of dollars into AI research, but mainly for entertainment purposes. Meanwhile, funding and computing power for truly human-related issues like cancer research, climate modeling, and drug discovery are pitifully scarce.
The problem isn't that AI technology itself isn't mature enough—today's AI is already sufficient. The real issue lies in the business model. Profitable and quickly effective avenues naturally attract capital, while fundamental research with long return cycles and unclear commercialization paths receives little investor interest.
This is a classic example of an incentive mechanism imbalance. How can we reverse this situation? How can we redesign economic incentives to direct the brightest minds and the most powerful tools to where they are needed most? This is a question worth serious consideration.