Fighting with Pxy: Within the scope of MAGA's poison politics or not?

Pxy abandoned me

Yesterday my prepaid AI Pro account with Pxy (Perplexity) stopped responding to my search and analysis queries unless I paid for more "credits", whatever those are. The same happened this morning. The new paywall seems to be real and not going away. My fully paid up account was supposed to last until Dec. Apparently too many users are costing too much for the old pricing to be honored any more. So now Pxy corp. is imposing a paywall to get more money, even if account holders do not consent to paying more. 

☹️ 

grumpy Pxy camper face

Some non-Pxy searching led to r/perplexity_ai. Lots of folks there are unhappy with what they are getting. This is one of a slew of grumpy Pxy camper posts, Bye bye perplexity.

I emailed Pxy support to ask for a refund of what is left of my account time. Their "customer service" AI called Sam said I could not get a prorated refund because I am outside the "standard refund eligibility window". Sam told me it could understand my frustration. I told non-sentient Sam to fuck off and put me in touch with a human being. We'll see how that goes in the coming days.

The current American AI business model faces a severe profitability barrier. The massive infrastructure and compute costs to run large language models are greater than the revenue generated from standard consumer subscriptions. Prices are going to have to go up a heck of a lot for profitability to be more than just a blowhard marketing mirage.

Are Trump and MAGA politics mostly to blame for this?   

Here we have a company stopping providing a service that was fully paid for, and demanding more money to continue providing what was already paid for. That seems to be awfully cheeky. It is an outright breach of contract, unless something buried on page 527 of the applicable terms of service contract says the company can unilaterally demand more money without the customer's prior knowledge or consent.

But given how much American businesses have morally and legally degraded, can one rationally attribute this kind to customer treatment as mostly to Trump and his MAGA politics and policy? After all, Trump has (1) deregulated businesses, (2) blocked most (nearly all?) ongoing and new federal law enforcement against businesses, and (3) takes bribes from businesses to give them want they want to buy from him. Who or what is going to hold Pxy corp., or whatever the company's name is, accountable? Certainly not the FBI, DOJ or FTC. They work for the criminal organization Trump Inc.  

Q1: Is this more evidence that the American AI business model is crap because American style AI costs far more to provide than can be significantly made up for by consumer subscriptions? 

Q2: Is connecting what Pxy did with Trump politics an example of TDS-2, unreasonably over the top, or otherwise just too irrational to take seriously?

Clinical terminology 🤪:

TDS-1 = Trump derangement syndrome in Trump's deranged mind and the minds of his supporters

TDS-2 = Trump derangement syndrome in the minds of his critics

Info sources:

AI revenues are growing fast, but not fast enough - The returns on trillions of dollars of spending are deeply uncertain 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Business Model: How AI-Native Companies Make Money - AI-native companies pay real money to serve every query. Traditional software as a service (SaaS) products incur minimal cost to serve one additional customer after the software ships. AI products pay to compute on every interaction, and that cost varies by customer, query complexity and the model that handles the request.

MAGA politics & policy update: Lying, corruption, incompetence, wrecking relationships

Lying, corruption & incompetence

Trump and MAGA elites aren't hiding their true intentions, corruption and incompetence any more. Sometimes, their screw-ups just can't be hidden.  

An article about Trump's failed attempt to fix the reflecting pool, Charges Dropped in Reflecting Pool Case as Prosecutors Say Work Was ‘Botched’, showcases blatant lying to the public and courts, and ghastly incompetence and corruption. Things are going just as expected. Trump's corrupted DOJ falsely accused an innocent person of vandalizing the reflecting pool. However, court proceedings required the DOJ to disclose evidence of vandalism. It turns out there was no vandalism. The repair job was completely botched. Charges dropped and MAGA prosecutors could not figure any way to keep persecuting the victimized defendant. Trump has called the repair job an astounding success.

The repair job on the water purification system failed leading to an algae bloom because Trump gave out a no-bid, non-competitive contract to a major Trump donor who had little relevant experience. That's blatant corruption. The repair job on the coatings that Trump falsely said were vandalized was also a no-bid, non-competitive contract to a different but also inexperienced contractor. There were two Trump repair jobs, the pool coating, and the water purification system. Both failed. That is pure incompetence. Link, link, link

Wrecking families and relationships

One of the cruelest and saddest aspects of Trump and MAGA demagoguery is the intense weaponization, polarization and divisiveness of politics. That was intentional. In addition to mass deceit of a significant portion of the public, a predictable result has been serious damage to millions of American families and to friendships. Damage from polarizing MAGA demagoguery is seen in both American families that are not recent immigrants families, and to immigrant families. 

One paper, Political breakups: Interpersonal consequences of polarization, described “political breakups” as losing relationships with friends, family members, romantic partners, or coworkers due to political differences. It's a real thing. data from 2025 indicated that ~37% of Americans reported having had a political breakup, mostly with friends. The researchers simply say that political polarization is driving many Americans apart. 

As expected for immigrant families, Trump family separation policy rips families apart. The 2024 paper, Mental Health Implications of Family Separation Associated with Migration Policies in the United States: A Systematic Review, makes clear that damage to many affected families is often quite serious. The data indicate that family separation or fear of it may result in depression, anxiety, behavioral and emotional issues, sleep disturbances, and stress or distress in both affected children and parents. 

A 2024 article Time published, How Estrangement Has Become an Epidemic in America, stated that ~10% of American families are estranged from a close relative(s) due to political differences. About one-third of American adults reported feeling uncomfortable at a family gathering in the past year because of a relative's political views. Link, link

Trump's divisiveness is intentional. He is not just divisive but anti-democratic. He normalizes personal authoritarian rule, attacks institutional constraints. He and uses his public office and public trust as resources to exploit for private gain. 

Although Obama was divisive, that was unintended. That was largely due to the fact that he was a Black man. Racists and bigots were enraged at his election and re-election. He was thus a polarizing president but nonetheless still accepted democracy, the rule of law and civilized politics. That is unlike Trump who relies heavily on dehumanization and demagoguery against immigrants, political opposition and democracy itself. Link