The AI Bubble Is Hiding the Real Revolution | by Samuel Z. Alemayehu | The Great Restructuring | Jul, 2025 | Medium

THE GREAT RESTRUCTURING

The AI Bubble Is Hiding the Real Revolution

The AI arms race is burning billions. The real winners are barely spending a dime.

Samuel Z. Alemayehu

4 min read

Jul 13, 2025

Press enter or click to view image in full sizeTwo worlds of AI: While the High Church pursues AGI in cathedral-like isolation, the Low Church thrives in creative, collaborative labs — growing practical solutions from the ground up. (image generated by author)

Split-image composition showing two contrasting environments: on the left, a cold, blue-lit gothic cathedral symbolizing the grandeur and rigidity of Big Tech’s AI ambitions; on the right, a warm, sunlit hacker lab filled with young developers surrounded by green glowing tendrils of code, representing grassroots AI innovation.

While tech giants chase AGI in a costly arms race, a quieter revolution is rewriting the rules.

There’s a split-screen reality in artificial intelligence today — two worlds, moving at different speeds, playing entirely different games.

On one side: trillion-dollar tech giants burning billions in pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Their strategy is powered by massive data centers, moonshot ambitions, and a near-religious belief in scale. This is the High Church of AI.

On the other: a scrappy, fast-moving ecosystem of startups, indie hackers, and open-source developers, quietly using the fallout from that race to build practical, profitable, often boring businesses. This is the Low Church of AI.

The High Church gets the headlines. The Low Church is quietly winning.

And the gap between them is only widening.

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