“The revenue you see today is what people are willing to pay for a product that loses money, and I cannot imagine they would pay as much if the companies in question charged their costs.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
He cannot imagine customers paying as much as they do today if AI companies charged them their actual costs.
Assessment: Can’t be checked Not checked against evidence
Where and when Ed Zitron wrote it
Where's Your Ed At, AI Is A Money Trap, paragraph 130.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence
- Not checkedboth screens found it cannot be checked
- Assessment recorded
- assessment wyea-ai-is-a-money-trap-cdda93-a1
We recorded 20 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-28. The source may have been edited after 2025-08-06. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Conditional forecast
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
Conditions
- if the companies charged their costs (antecedent, stated by the speaker)
- I cannot imagine (qualifier, stated by the speaker)
From the speaker
- if the companies charged their costs
- I cannot imagine
Our interpretation
None added.
This claim is not graded on evidence. The record checks that the words are quoted correctly and attributed to the right person, and that the claim is classified correctly.
Current assessment
Not graded on evidence
Outcome: Can’t be checked
Both AI providers screened this claim on their own and found that public evidence could not settle it. It is recorded and attributed, not scored.
Why it can’t be checked
Each screen gave its own reason:
- About something no public evidence could show, such as a private intention or a counterfactual.
- Stated as a chance or a possibility, or at medium or low confidence.
- Evidence
- Not checked
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
Not checked against evidence. Two independent screens, one from each provider, both found that evidence could not settle it: one found it about something no public evidence could show, such as a private intention or a counterfactual; the other found it stated as a chance or a possibility, or at medium or low confidence.
Limitations
None recorded.
Evidence (0 items)
No evidence was searched for. Both screens found that public evidence could not settle this claim.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Where's Your Ed At, AI Is A Money Trap
The revenue you see today is what people are willing to pay for a product that loses money, and I cannot imagine they would pay as much if the companies in question charged their costs.
- Where
- paragraph 130
- Published
- 2025-08-06
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment wyea-ai-is-a-money-trap-cdda93-a1: Current. Outcome: Can’t be checked. Not checked against evidence. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.