The End of the AI Lifestyle Subsidy: Why Your Digital Experience is About to Get Worse

Venture capital and low interest rates once fueled rapid growth for startups, even if they were losing money on each sale. Now, that money flows into LLM-based products, but this subsidy is unsustainable. Search engines and social media are overrun with ads, degrading information quality. AI discovery mechanisms face the same problem. The future will likely see AI applications saturated with ads, potentially including 'black hat GEO,' making it hard to distinguish AI hallucinations from paid promotions. While paid services and open-source models may be exceptions, most consumer AI applications will inevitably be swamped by ads. Enjoy it while it lasts, because the AI lifestyle subsidy is ending.