I would describe myself as a skeptic of the generative AI revolution. I think the technology as it currently exists is situationally impressive and useful for specific types of tasks, but overall overrated. I'm not sure it will lose relevance at the same rate as other tech fads like the Metaverse or NFTs, but my suspicion is that companies like Nvidia and OpenAI are in a bubble that will pop or deflate over time as more companies and individuals run into the limitations of the technology, and as it fails to make progress as quickly or as impressively as its most ardent boosters predict.
Maybe you agree with me and maybe you don't! I'm not necessarily trying to convince you one way or another. But me am What I want to say here is that even if you agree with me, we can all celebrate the one unequivocally positive thing the Generative AI hype cycle has done for computers this year: the RAM floor for many PCs and all Macs is now finally 16 GB instead of 8 GB.
Companies like Apple and Microsoft have been making attractive, powerful hardware with 8GB of memory for years, most egregiously in so-called “pro” computers priced at $1,000 and up, like last year's $1,599 M3 MacBook Pro or the Surface Pro 9.
This meant that, for the kind of power users and professionals attracted to these machines, their starting prices were essentially mirages; “Pay for 16GB if you can” has been my general advice to MacBook buyers for years, as there's basically no workload (including basic web browsing) that won't benefit at least a little from it. It also leaves more room for future software explosions and future hobby discoveries. Did you buy an 8GB Mac and then decide to try software development, photo or video editing, CAD design, or Logic Pro? Success!
