Tag: AI economics
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AI Layoffs Aren’t Working: The Jevons Paradox
In 1865, the English economist William Stanley Jevons published The Coal Question. His observation was counterintuitive and has stayed that way for 160 years: James Watt’s steam engine was dramatically more efficient than its predecessor, and British coal consumption went up, not down. The efficiency made coal-powered machinery cheaper to operate, which expanded demand for it…
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Why Cheaper to Build Doesn’t Mean Cheaper to Own
A private equity firm was running due diligence on a SaaS company. Standard process: evaluate the product, the market position, and the technical defensibility. But this time, the consulting team added a new step. They took the target company’s core product and asked an AI coding assistant to replicate it. In days, they had a…
