💰 The Hidden Cost of AI: Your Devices Just Got Pricier

Hey there,

This week's AI news reads like a Black Mirror episode: AI ate all the memory chips (your next laptop will cost more), Google is crushing ChatGPT in market share, and over half the web is now AI-generated garbage that nobody asked for. Also if you have any suggestions on how you would like to see the newsletter improve, then just reply directly to the emails. We see them all!

Here's what happened:

• AI memory chip shortage – Laptops, phones, consoles about to get pricier
• Google Gemini jumps to 18% market share – ChatGPT drops 19 points in one year
• "AI slop" named Word of the Year – 50%+ of web content now AI-generated

Let’s break it down.

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🛠️ Tool of the Week: Rewind AI (Not Sponsored)

The Mac app that records everything on your screen and makes it searchable

Forget what someone said in a meeting three days ago? Can’t find that competitor name you saw on Tuesday? Rewind records everything on your Mac screen and makes it searchable.

What it does:

• Records your screen continuously (every 2 seconds)
• Transcribes all audio from Zoom, Meet, videos
• OCR on everything visible on screen
• Natural language search – "What was that budget number from the morning meeting?"
• Timeline navigation to scrub through your digital history

Real-world example:

Someone mentions a competitor’s new feature in a meeting. You don’t catch the exact name. Three days later, you need it.

Open Rewind (Cmd + Shift + Space), type "competitor new feature meeting," and it shows you the exact moment it was mentioned with screen + transcript.

The privacy angle:

Everything stored locally on your Mac. Nothing sent to cloud. You control what gets recorded (pause anytime, exclude apps). Private browser windows automatically excluded.

Trade-off: If someone accesses your Mac, they access your Rewind history.

Why people use it:

• Executives: Never miss meeting details
• Developers: Find terminal commands from weeks ago
• Sales: Review calls without taking notes
• ADHD: Offload memory burden completely

The catch:

• Mac only (Apple Silicon - M1/M2/M3)
• ~14GB storage per month
• Can make Mac run hotter
• $19/month isn’t cheap

Who it’s for: People in back-to-back meetings, context switchers, information overload victims, anyone who wants photographic memory for their workday.

Pricing:
Free: Perpetual storage, limited features
Pro: $19/month (annual) or $29/month (monthly)

Tools:Rewind AI

🧠 1. AI Memory Chip Shortage = Higher Prices Coming

The AI boom is eating all the RAM, and you're about to pay for it

Remember when crypto miners bought every GPU on Earth and ruined PC gaming prices? That’s happening again, but with memory chips.

AI data centers need massive amounts of RAM to train and run models. Chip manufacturers have shifted production to meet this lucrative AI demand, which means fewer chips for laptops, phones, gaming consoles, and TVs.

The numbers:

• 10% of global RAM demand can’t be fulfilled
• Micron (major chip maker) reports supply "substantially short of demand for the foreseeable future"
• Chip companies prioritizing AI data centers over consumer products
• Dell already warning customers about higher costs

What’s actually happening:

AI workloads require "large, persistent memory footprints, extreme bandwidth, and tight proximity to compute," according to industry analysts. Companies are spending billions building data centers at breakneck speed, creating unprecedented demand for high-end memory chips.

Manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have pivoted production toward these lucrative AI contracts. That means fewer chips for everything else.

The impact:

TrendForce analyst Avril Wu’s advice: "If you want a device, buy it now."
She already bought an iPhone 17 (yes, seriously).

Dell’s COO Jeff Clarke noted higher memory costs on an earnings call and said there’s no way this doesn’t affect customer pricing.

Translation: Your next laptop, phone, or console will cost more. Not because the tech improved, but because AI ate all the chips.

Why this matters:

Unlike the GPU shortage during crypto mania, this isn’t a bubble. AI demand for memory is structural and growing. Companies can’t "dial down" memory requirements without breaking performance.

This is the new normal until chip manufacturing capacity catches up (which could take years).

Tools:NPR Article

📉 2. Google Gemini Just Crushed ChatGPT

Market share jumped from 5% to 18% in one year while ChatGPT dropped 19 points

Google’s Gemini went from afterthought to serious competitor in just 12 months — and new data shows it’s eating ChatGPT’s lunch.

According to Similarweb traffic data, Gemini now commands 18.2% of generative AI web traffic, up from just 5.4% a year ago. That’s more than tripled.

ChatGPT, meanwhile, fell from 87.2% to 68% — a staggering 19-point drop.

Why this is happening:

1. Native distribution wins

Gemini is embedded everywhere users already live: Chrome, Android, Google Workspace, and Search. When AI usage transitions from novelty to routine utility, the product that’s already there captures the flow.

You don’t need to open a new tab to use Gemini. It’s just… there.

2. ChatGPT’s dominance was never guaranteed

Early mover advantage only matters if you keep moving. Google’s infrastructure, distribution, and resources are now fully mobilized around AI — and they’re catching up fast.

3. Microsoft Copilot is DOA

Despite being baked into Windows and Edge, Copilot went from 1.5% to 1.2% market share over the same period. Distribution alone doesn’t work if users don’t trust or enjoy the product.

What analysts are saying:

“This is not noise,” said Solid Finance CEO Sam Badawi. “If you believe web behavior reflects user preference at scale, then this is the clearest signal that Google is not only in the game, it is winning share.”

OpenAI’s response:

Reportedly sent an internal “Code Red” memo after ChatGPT traffic dipped. Then rushed GPT‑5.2 and a new image generator to compete.

The war is heating up.

Why it matters:

This isn’t just about chatbots. It’s about who controls the AI infrastructure layer of the internet.

If Google can integrate AI into Search, Maps, Gmail, and Android successfully, they own the AI user experience for billions of people.

ChatGPT may have started the revolution — but Google might finish it.

Source: Yahoo Finance Article

📰 3. "AI Slop" Named Word of the Year

Over half of English web content is now AI-generated, and everyone hates it

In 2025, mentions of "AI slop" across the internet increased ninefold from 2024, with negative sentiment hitting 54% in October.

Merriam-Webster and Australia's national dictionary both named it Word of the Year.

What is AI slop?

Low-quality, unwanted AI-generated content polluting search engines, shopping platforms, social media, and yes — even the White House’s official communications.

According to SEO firm Graphite, AI-generated articles now make up more than half of all English-language content on the web.

Where you see it:

• Nonsensical Amazon product descriptions
• Generic blog posts that say nothing
• LinkedIn posts that read like ChatGPT wrote them (because they did)
• Search results filled with AI-generated spam sites
• Social media posts designed to game algorithms

The problem:

Product designers are stuck between shareholders demanding "AI features" and users who don’t want them.

Kate Moran, VP at Nielsen Norman Group: “There’s a lot of pressure to show shareholders, ‘Look, we put AI in our product.’ This is technology-led design, starting with the tool, and then trying to look for a problem that potentially that tool could solve.”

Real-world failure:

Meta launched an AI feature that replaced Instagram’s search bar with an AI chatbot. Users were furious. Meta backpedaled fast.

“You believe a search bar does a certain thing, and then all of a sudden, when you start typing in there, you’re talking to an AI chatbot and you didn’t want that. That’s a bad experience,” Moran said.

Meta’s AI push flopped:

Meta’s “Vibes” (AI-generated content feed) launched in Europe with high hopes. Internal data shows just 23,000 daily active users in the first weeks.

This is the same company that said it was tackling “unoriginal content” earlier this year and advised creators to favor “authentic storytelling.”

Why this matters:

The internet is getting worse because companies are optimizing for “we have AI” instead of “we solved a problem.”

The result: An ocean of mediocre, AI-generated garbage drowning out actual human creativity and expertise.

Welcome to 2025.

Tools: Euronews Article

Tip 1: "Anti-Prompting" – Tell AI What NOT to Do

Most people only tell AI what they want. Power users also tell it what to avoid.

Why it works: AI models often fall into predictable patterns (buzzwords, generic advice, obvious answers). Explicitly ruling these out forces more creative, useful outputs.

The template:

"[Your request]

Do NOT:
- [Common bad pattern 1]
- [Common bad pattern 2]
- [Common bad pattern 3]

Instead, focus on: [what you actually want]"

Example:

Bad: "Write a LinkedIn post about our new feature."

Good: "Write a LinkedIn post about our new collaborative editing feature."

Do NOT:

• Use words like 'game-changing,' 'revolutionary,' or 'excited to announce'
• Make generic claims about productivity
• Include emojis or hashtags
• Sound like marketing copy

Instead: Tell a specific story about a customer problem this solves, use concrete numbers, write like a human.

Real result difference:

Without constraints: “🚀 Excited to announce our game-changing new feature! Revolutionary collaborative editing is here to transform your workflow...”

With constraints: “Last week, a customer told us they waste 2 hours/day merging conflicting document versions. Three people editing the same deck, each overwriting the other's changes. Our new collaborative editing shows live cursors, auto-merges conflicts, and tracks who changed what. No more version hell.”

When to use: Content creation, brainstorming, avoiding generic AI outputs, getting past clichés.

Tip 2: Use Constraints to Get Better Outputs

AI will ramble forever if you let it. Set clear constraints to force focus.

Why it works: Constraints force AI to prioritize and be concise. Without them, you get 800 words when you needed 100.

The template:

"[Your request]

Constraints:
- Maximum [X] words/bullets/sentences
- Include only [specific type of information]
- Format as [specific format]
- Avoid [things you don't want]"

Example:

Bad: "Give me marketing ideas for my app."

Good: "Give me 5 marketing ideas for a productivity app targeting remote workers."

Constraints:

• Budget under $500 per idea
• Must be executable in under 2 weeks
• Focus on organic/owned channels only
• No paid ads
• Format as: Idea name, why it works, first 3 steps

When to use: Brainstorming, getting actionable advice, content creation, research summaries.

Tip 3: Create a "Knowledge Base" Prompt for Repeat Tasks

If you do the same type of task repeatedly, create a master prompt with all your context and reuse it.

Why it works: You stop wasting time re-explaining your context every time. The AI already knows your business, style, audience, constraints.

How to build it:

1. Start with your business context
2. Add your target audience
3. Include your brand voice/style
4. List your constraints
5. Save it, reuse it, refine it

Example knowledge base prompt:

CONTEXT:
I run a B2B SaaS company selling project management software to 50–200 person tech companies. Our customers are mostly engineering and product teams. Our main competitors are Asana and Monday.com.

AUDIENCE:
Tech-savvy, values efficiency, hates bloat, wants integrations, skeptical of marketing hype.

VOICE:
Direct, conversational, no buzzwords, show don't tell, use concrete examples.

CONSTRAINTS:
- All content under 500 words
- Always include specific numbers/data when possible
- Avoid: "revolutionary," "game-changing," "next-level"
- Focus on practical value, not features

[Your specific request goes here]

Now every time you need content, add your specific request at the bottom. The AI already knows everything else.

When to use: Content marketing, customer emails, sales outreach, product descriptions, recurring analysis.

A quick note before you go

Thanks for reading this week’s Brain Bytes — I hope something here helped you move faster or think better.

How’d this one land?

• A ✨ Super Helpful!
• B 🤔 Some Good Stuff!
• C 😕 Could be better.

See you next week, — Oliver