“Even if you are impressed by what LLMs can do, remember that what you’re impressed by is the result of burning more money than anybody has ever burned on anything, including the Great Financial Crisis’ Troubled Asset Relief Plan (a little over $400 billion) and the COVID Paycheck Protection Program (somewhere between $800 billion and $900 billion).”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
What LLMs can do is the result of burning more money than anybody has ever burned on anything, including TARP (a little over $400 billion) and the PPP ($800–900 billion).
Assessment: Unresolved Evidence as of
Where and when Ed Zitron wrote it
Where's Your Ed At, Why Are We Still Doing This?, paragraph 85.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment wyea-why-are-we-still-doing-this-d4635f-a1
We recorded 33 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 2026-03-17. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- 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)
From the speaker
- what you’re impressed by is the result of burning more money
- than anybody has ever burned on anything
- Troubled Asset Relief Plan (a little over $400 billion)
- Paycheck Protection Program (somewhere between $800 billion and $900 billion)
Our interpretation
- Read 'burning' as cumulative gross expenditure attributable to developing and supplying LLMs, because the context discusses capital spending rather than a consistent net-loss measure.
- The comparison concerns expenditure incurred by March 17, 2026. Announced financing and future spending are not expenditure already incurred.
- The surrounding figures are treated as estimates, not an audited industry account.
- The named program comparisons are checkable separately from the much broader historical superlative.
Counts as supported if: A reconciled, non-duplicative estimate of actual cumulative LLM expenditure exceeds the named programs on a consistent basis; supporting the literal superlative additionally requires comparison with other major historical undertakings.
Counts as contradicted if: Comparable accounts establish that cumulative LLM expenditure does not exceed a named benchmark, or identify a larger historical undertaking on the same spending basis.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Unresolved
The record was checked, and the evidence available by the cutoff does not settle it.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
The records establish large AI-related spending and the broad scale of PPP. They do not establish a comparable cumulative LLM expenditure total. Adding fundraising to capital spending and future plans would not measure money already spent and could double-count transfers. That accounting problem prevents support, but it does not by itself prove that actual expenditure was below either benchmark.
Limitations
- This assessment does not treat investment in an asset as a demonstrated economic loss.
- The named benchmarks do not establish the claim about every historical undertaking.
Evidence (2 items)
Context only: Amazon,
primarily reflects investments in artificial intelligence.
Why it matters here: The referenced increase is $50.7 billion in annual purchases of property and equipment, net of sales and incentives. This is one company's change in spending, not cumulative industry expenditure; the release separately describes approximately $200 billion of 2026 capex as expected spending.
- Publisher
- Amazon
- Kind of source
- Company disclosure: the company describing itself, not an independent finding
- Measures
- Amazon, Year-over-year increase in purchases of property and equipment, net of proceeds from sales and incentives, USD billions, company reported, 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
Context only: U.S. Government Accountability Office,
Congress provided approximately $814 billion in commitment authority.
Why it matters here: GAO places PPP commitment authority at approximately $814 billion and reports about $800 billion in loans by May 31, 2021. These provide program-scale context, but neither authorization nor lending is automatically comparable to industry losses or AI-specific expenditure.
- Publisher
- U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Kind of source
- Official statistics
- Measures
- U.S. Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program, Congressional commitment authority, USD billions, company reported, 2020 to 2021
- Describes events of
- Public from
What would settle it
A transparent cumulative expenditure reconciliation through March 17, 2026, with consistent program comparators and a defined meaning of 'burning'.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Where's Your Ed At, Why Are We Still Doing This?
Even if you are impressed by what LLMs can do, remember that what you’re impressed by is the result of burning more money than anybody has ever burned on anything, including the Great Financial Crisis’ Troubled Asset Relief Plan (a little over $400 billion) and the COVID Paycheck Protection Program (somewhere between $800 billion and $900 billion).
- Where
- paragraph 85
- Published
- 2026-03-17
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment wyea-why-are-we-still-doing-this-d4635f-a1: Current. Outcome: Unresolved. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
About assessment wyea-why-are-we-still-doing-this-d4635f-a1.