# Ed Zitron

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/people/ed-zitron/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Real Alpha has cut 7 moments of Ed Zitron (Founder & CEO, EZPR) talking, from an interview on The Diary Of A CEO published Aug 27, 2026.

- Role: Founder & CEO, EZPR
- About: Hosts Better Offline and writes Where's Your Ed At, a prominent critic of AI industry hype.
- On X: https://x.com/edzitron

## What Ed Zitron said

- [AI subscriptions can hide the true cost of usage](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-subscriptions-can-hide-the-true-cost-of-usage/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 5 min
  > “They found that on a $200 a month chat GPT subscription, you can burn $14,000 worth of tokens.” — Ed Zitron · [12:48](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=768)
- [AI infrastructure spending is fueled by circular financing](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-infrastructure-spending-is-fueled-by-circular-financing/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 8 min
  > “They are doing it because they saw the biggest companies in the world building data centers” — Ed Zitron · [1:47:23](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=6443)
- [Ed predicts OpenAI could run out of cash in 2027](https://realalpha.app/s/ed-predicts-openai-could-run-out-of-cash-in-2027/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 7 min
  > “They are going to need to raise at least $100 billion a year just to survive.” — Ed Zitron · [2:09:47](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=7787)
- [AI has not produced broad white-collar job losses](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-has-not-produced-broad-white-collar-job-losses/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 7 min
  > “work-wise, are art directors. It's people, art directors, transcribers, translators, who have bosses that don't care about the output.” — Ed Zitron · [1:06:31](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=3991)
- [The blackmail examples were prompted tests, not autonomous acts](https://realalpha.app/s/the-blackmail-examples-were-prompted-tests-not-autonomous/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 4 min
  > “What actually happened was a user of GPT doing the experiment got it to generate things to say to a TaskRabbit to make a TaskRabbit do stuff.” — Ed Zitron · [2:00:58](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=7258)
- [AI capability gains are hitting practical limits](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-capability-gains-are-hitting-practical-limits/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 7 min
  > “the promises do not line up with the capabilities or the capability improvements.” — Ed Zitron · [1:40:01](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=6001)
- [Ed links Google's search decline to pressure for more queries](https://realalpha.app/s/ed-links-googles-search-decline-to-pressure-for-more-queries/)
  The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026 · 6 min
  > “Google stripped back a lot of the suppression of spammy sites so that people would be on Google more.” — Ed Zitron · [54:10](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/?t=3250)

## The episode

- [The Man Who Calls BS On AI: They’re LYING About AI, 2027 Is When It All Breaks! | Ed Zitron](https://realalpha.app/v/Lf5oqGOCRCM/) · The Diary Of A CEO · Aug 27, 2026