Help us become the #1 Data Podcast by leaving a rating & review! We are 67 reviews away!

I'll tell you the dark truth about AI as a data analyst that most people are completely ignoring.

💌 Join 30k+ aspiring data analysts & get my tips in your inbox weekly 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/newsletter

🆘 Feeling stuck in your data journey? Come to my next free "How to Land Your First Data Job" training 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/training

👩‍💻 Want to land a data job in less than 90 days? 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/daa

👔 Ace The Interview with Confidence 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/interviewsimulator

⌚ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – AI is fooling you

02:21 – The prices aren't real

05:18 – Why they'll go up

07:00 – The move going forward

🔗 CONNECT WITH AVERY

🎥 YouTube Channel

🤝 LinkedIn

📸 Instagram

🎵 TikTok

💻 Website

Mentioned in this episode:

🔍 Find Your Next Data Job at FindADataJob.com

This episode is brought to you by FindADataJob.com — the #1 job board for aspiring data analysts. It's my own job board, where we post dozens of new data analyst roles every single day. Every listing comes with the stuff other boards leave out: salary reports, skill reports, and a seniority score, so you know exactly what you're applying to before you hit submit. Stop scrolling through a hundred irrelevant postings and go find your next data job faster at FindADataJob.com.

FindADataJob.com

Avery Smith-1: So there's a pretty dark

future of AI that I don't hear a lot of

2

people talking about, and no, I'm not

even talking about all of the ethics

3

of how AI is ruining the environment

or how, you know, it's dehumanizing

4

the world or that people are just

trusting in all these all-powerful

5

AI chatbots and making dumb choices.

6

Although, we can argue those

in the comments if you'd like.

7

But for now, I'd really like to

focus on these dark costs of using

8

AI as a data analyst right now,

or a data professional really.

9

And for your career at this very

second, I think, like, ChatGPT

10

and Claude are fooling you.

11

I think that if you're using AI heavily

right now, it's either going to make or

12

break your career and, uh, I'll give you

all my arguments for that in this episode.

13

But if you're new here,

my name's Avery Smith.

14

I'm a senior data analyst, and I

try to make helpful content about

15

the future of data careers and

how AI and data play together.

16

And if you're interested in that,

which, let's be honest, you probably

17

are 'cause you're here, right?

18

Then go ahead and hit

the subscribe button.

19

But obviously, AI is here,

and it's really revolutionary.

20

Admittedly, I haven't written a line

of code unassisted in probably, like,

21

two-plus years now, and that's amazing.

22

It's opened up windows I

never even thought possible.

23

It's made me a better, a faster data

analyst and a developer, and it's

24

allowed me to build helpful products for

the data community like My Datafolio,

25

which is an online data portfolio

hosting platform, and findadatajob.com,

26

which is my job site that I

post lots of data jobs there.

27

And you probably feel the same.

28

Like, AI has really helped you

in a lot of ways in your life.

29

Like, maybe it's helped you look things

up faster, like no more Google, right?

30

Woo-hoo.

31

Maybe it's helped you

write SQL queries faster.

32

Maybe it's helped you with your

taxes, booked flights, whatever.

33

I don't know, all sorts

of different things.

34

But for all those good things, I

think there is a dark side that

35

both you and I are really ignoring

right now, and to our own detriment.

36

And no, it's not the obvious one of

you're actually learning the skills.

37

I think that's important,

but it's one that's much more

38

hidden and much more diabolical.

39

And it's important to know the skills.

40

Like, if AI's doing something,

you should be able to correct it.

41

You should be able to know if it's

actually giving you the right answers

42

to confirm what's actually going on.

43

And if you can't do that and you give that

analysis to a stakeholder, then there's

44

potential for a lot of big problems.

45

You know, maybe that's a big loss

in dollars, but it could be loss

46

in time, productivity, or even

lives at the worst case, right?

47

So if you're relying heavily on AI right

now, you might not be learning the core

48

skills necessary to actually become

a truly powerful data professional.

49

And that is serious, and

that is a problem, but you

50

probably already know that.

51

So what if I told you instead that

there's even a bigger rug pull at play,

52

one that you maybe haven't heard of yet,

that there's something slowly spreading

53

quietly in the AI and data industry that

people are quietly whispering about, not

54

really talking it out loud, and it's this:

that the biggest players in the space,

55

Claude and ChatGPT, are scamming us.

56

They're setting us up for an epic

realization that's going to leave us

57

all shell-shocked and kind of screwed.

58

And it's this: the current

AI prices are fake, fugazi.

59

They're literally artificial, and

I totally mean that to be a pun.

60

"But Avery, what do you mean?"

61

Guys, these prices,

they're subsidized heavily.

62

Every time you send an AI, they

are charging you one cent or

63

something like that, but it's

really costing them two to reply.

64

These companies are literally losing

money, literally burning it, and not just

65

a little bit of it, a lot of it, millions

and millions of dollars, hundreds of

66

millions of dollars they're just literally

throwing out the window, all in an effort

67

to get us addicted, to get us hooked.

68

And when we become reliant on it and we

can't live without it, that's when they'll

69

finally raise prices to what they actually

should be And if you don't believe me, no

70

problem, you know, don't trust me, right?

71

A recent study showed that

current AI prices from ChatGPT

72

and Claude are subsidized by up

to 70 times their actual prices.

73

Meaning if you have a Claude Max plan or

a ChatGPT Max plan like me, you're really

74

getting like 20 times, 70 times the usage

for what you're actually paying for.

75

Meaning if you do the same amount

of usage at actual break-even prices

76

for these companies, you're literally

going to be paying hundreds of dollars

77

more than you are right now to do

the same type of analysis, to do the

78

same type of queries, to do the same

types of chats that you're doing.

79

So just come with me for a second

and imagine that you don't learn the

80

fundamentals of SQL and Python, and right

now you're able to do some pretty decent

81

analysis just with ChatGPT or Claude.

82

You can do some pretty cool graphs.

83

You can make some pretty cool scripts.

84

You can do some pretty cool queries,

and maybe it costs you $10 to

85

generate all of these different

reports that, what you want.

86

Well, what happens down the road

when you want to generate a similar

87

report, but instead of $10 it costs

you $700 to do something similar?

88

Are you personally willing

to pay that amount?

89

Do the economics actually make

sense for you in that case, and

90

do they make sense for the company

that you'll be working for?

91

What you think you can do with AI

right now for $100 will not be what

92

you can do in the future for $100.

93

You'll be able to do a

lot less in the future.

94

Now, how far into the future?

95

I'm not going to just guess and

give you the timeline, but there's

96

a lot of hints being left right now.

97

Both Anthropic and OpenAI have had

discussions recently of IPO-ing and

98

becoming a publicly traded company,

and when that happens, their financials

99

will get scrutinized a lot more.

100

They have to actually publish all the

different, you know, financials that

101

public companies have to do, and when

that happens, they will feel the public

102

and shareholder pressure of this insane

cash burning that they're doing right now.

103

They will eventually need to have

profit or at least way less loss

104

than they're currently happening.

105

They can't just continue

to burn money forever.

106

So this may be in just a few

weeks, it may be in a few

107

months, it may be even in years.

108

I don't know.

109

But I think it's going to happen,

and there's a chance that these

110

prices not only go up, but go up

from what they are today, and it's

111

important for you to know that.

112

Now, why is that the case?

113

Why are prices so high and why

might they go higher in the future?

114

Well, I think there's two key factors,

basically, in all of AI: the hardware

115

and the power for the hardware.

116

Now, historically, hardware and computer

chips have gotten cheaper over time

117

and better over time, but that doesn't

actually really factor in the idea of

118

the demand that we're in right now.

119

We've seen great demand for

GPUs with cryptocurrency,

120

with artificial intelligence.

121

Demand is way up, and if supply

can't actually meet the demand,

122

we, you know, have an imbalance

and we may see prices go up.

123

Similarly, the power needed to power

AI and all these, you know, data

124

farms and all these compute farms,

all these data centers around the

125

world is going up, and the electricity

prices are going up as well.

126

Electricity prices in the US have nearly

increased 50% in the last five years.

127

As you can see from this graph right

here, it is a crazy big increase,

128

and I don't really think there's

any sign of this increase stopping.

129

Like electricity is just going to get

more and more expensive, and as it does,

130

so will the price of AI, unfortunately.

131

So what's actually my point here?

132

Well, if you think that you can

use AI to do data a- analytics for

133

the rest of your life and the rest

of your career, you may be right.

134

There's also a chance that you'll

actually be using it less than you think.

135

If the prices make it uneconomical

for companies, they will have to

136

take action and take quick action.

137

We've actually already started

to see it, whether you actually

138

have heard about it or not.

139

Microsoft, obviously a huge tech company,

literally cut their engineers from

140

AI because of how big the bill was.

141

Uber is now capping their employees

after they blew the entire AI budget

142

for the entire year in one quarter.

143

And even tech giants like Meta and Amazon

are feeling the costs, and if they're

144

feeling it, we're all probably feeling it

as, you know, smaller fish in the pond.

145

Now, that's not to say that you should

just start ignoring AI and just do all

146

your SQL queries and Python code by

hand, because you really shouldn't.

147

I think that's a big mistake as well.

148

AI is going to be used in the future,

and you as a data professional

149

need to be paying close attention

and getting practice on it.

150

But at the same time, maybe you

shouldn't be token maxing and just,

151

like, running up your AI bill like crazy

without actually having foundational

152

knowledge of what you're actually doing

and what you're actually building.

153

It's really a delicate balance to use

AI enough to stay dangerous, but not use

154

it enough that you become dependent, and

it's a balance that I'm exploring on my

155

own as well, and I'm actually gonna be

talking about it a lot in my newsletter.

156

So you should consider subscribing.

157

It's datacareernewsletter.com,

158

and I send literally meaningful

advice every single week on the

159

future of data analytics and AI.

160

There will also be a link in

the description down below.