*The deeper economic truth here is that reproduction at scale in affluent settings becomes a form of capital investment with heavy ongoing expenditure. It is a status game where the currency is not just money but the human capital and logistical machine needed to raise multiple children with a certain quality of life. In that sense it may be the purest form of the luxury flex today precisely because it cannot be bought in an instant. It must be sustained year after year which is why it remains unattainable for most and aspirational for many.*
*The rising prominence of Qwen and similar models does seem to suggest that a key measure for any AI model, beyond how clever it is, should be how widely it is used to build other stuff. By that benchmark, Qwen and other open Chinese models are ascendant.*
So Long, GPT-5. Hello, Qwen | WIRED
