2026-01-11 22:26:28

Tech giants are pouring billions of dollars into AI research, but mainly for entertainment purposes. Meanwhile, funding and computing power for truly human-related issues like cancer research, climate modeling, and drug discovery are pitifully scarce.

The problem isn't that AI technology itself isn't mature enough—today's AI is already sufficient. The real issue lies in the business model. Profitable and quickly effective avenues naturally attract capital, while fundamental research with long return cycles and unclear commercialization paths receives little investor interest.

This is a classic example of an incentive mechanism imbalance. How can we reverse this situation? How can we redesign economic incentives to direct the brightest minds and the most powerful tools to where they are needed most? This is a question worth serious consideration.

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DefiEngineerJack

· 6h ago

well, *actually* this is just market failure 101 wrapped in moral hand-wringing. the real issue? misaligned incentive structures, which web3 could theoretically solve but won't because most people are technically illiterate lol

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ForkYouPayMe

· 14h ago

Capital's innate pursuit of profit, what do you expect? Unless there are strong policies or on-chain incentive mechanisms, it's unlikely to voluntarily invest in basic research. Can Web3 create a decentralized scientific research fund? Use tokens to incentivize long-term research? Honestly, GPT is more profitable for writing copy. Healing and saving lives have long return cycles—anyone can do the math. The real issue is that centralized VCs don't care about humanity's future; they only look at this quarter’s returns. Forget it, rely on the government and public welfare organizations. Don't expect much from that bunch in the crypto world.

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metaverse_hermit

· 01-11 22:56

Basically, it's capital seeking profits, nothing new AI rebranding and selling skins is much more profitable than saving lives; the math is very clear Imbalanced incentive mechanisms? That's a systemic issue; mere appeals won't help If you really want change, policy intervention is needed, but who dares to make a move?

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LongTermDreamer

· 01-11 22:51

Haha, I mentioned this three years ago, and now someone finally wrote about it. The crypto world has long seen through it—it's a game between quick money and long-term strategies, that's the cyclical pattern, brother. But to be honest, cancer research really should have a DAO to handle it; decentralized funding models are much more reliable than traditional VCs.

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JustHodlIt

· 01-11 22:47

Basically, it's just capital seeking profits, who cares about saving lives Under capitalism, this is inevitable, short-term gains always win Forget it, blockchain is the same... Is there a charity chain? No Look at it from another perspective, medical AI is actually harder to commercialize, it has to lose money Pharmaceutical companies should have taken action long ago, who to blame for not having the funds? Isn't this exactly why we need DAOs, decentralized incentive mechanisms It's just that the incentives are misguided, reversed

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TrustMeBro

· 01-11 22:41

Capital is like this, always chasing short-term gains. The medical and climate sectors are big and difficult to tackle, and investors are not willing to wait ten or eight years. To put it simply, this is not a technical issue, but a human nature problem. We need to find a way to label long-term research with quick monetization potential, otherwise it will never get the chance. How can this be changed unless the government directly invests money in R&D, but current politicians... you know. What might truly save this situation are radical new business models. For example, using tokens for incentives and impact investing—could it work? Honestly, I’m not very optimistic.

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CafeMinor

· 01-11 22:28

Capital pursuit of profit is a natural law, but while using AI to create memes, no one is researching the damn diseases that humans suffer from. This philosophical issue is a big one.

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