Intelligence is a scarce resource. Acquiring and scaling intelligence is expensive. If a company wants to solve a problem, it needed smart minds—engineers, scientists, thinkers. And that doesn’t come cheap. Education is costly. Specialized knowledge is rare. Yet, with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, we are approaching a point where the cost of certain types of intelligence becomes almost negligible.

At first, this might sound like an exaggerated claim. After all, AI systems are expensive to develop and operate. But that’s a common misconception that often occurs when technologies are still young. The first cars were expensive, as were the first computers. But what followed wasn’t just a better car or a faster computer. It was scaling. The transition from a luxury good to a resource accessible to almost everyone.

What Does "Intelligence" Mean?

When I speak of "intelligence" in this context, I don’t mean the full spectrum of human cognition. I’m referring to specific, narrowly defined tasks: recognizing patterns, analyzing data, finding solutions within defined problem spaces. Tasks that once required highly qualified people can now be performed by algorithms—often faster, cheaper, and with fewer errors.

Take translations, for example. Twenty years ago, you had to hire professional translators to convert a text from one language to another. Today, anyone with a smartphone can use Google Translate, and the results are sufficient for most purposes. The cost of this type of intelligence is practically zero.

The Emergence of “Artificial Mass”

In economics, we often talk about economies of scale. AI brings economies of scale to an area where they were previously impossible: intelligence. Once developed, models can run on billions of devices. A single AI model, like OpenAI’s GPT, can solve millions of tasks simultaneously, with the cost per query dropping exponentially.

This “artificial mass” has two fundamental implications. First, intelligence becomes a commodity. Like electricity or internet access, it becomes ubiquitous. Second, it shifts the value creation process. When the cost of intelligence approaches zero, what becomes valuable?

The New Scarcity

The paradox of technological progress is that it eliminates old scarcities only to create new ones. When the internet democratized information, the scarcity of knowledge disappeared—and a new scarcity emerged: attention.

Now, as the cost of intelligence declines, the question arises: What will be scarce this time?

Perhaps it’s human creativity. Perhaps trust. Or emotional intelligence—things that machines (for now) cannot replicate.

It could also be courage. The courage to make decisions not based on algorithms. The courage to make mistakes and discover something new in the process.

Because when intelligence becomes free, it’s easy to rely on it. But perhaps the real challenge in a world where everyone has access to cheap intelligence is having the courage not to always listen to it.

Conclusion

Intelligence used to be a bottleneck. Now it’s turning into a raw material—on its way to becoming as ubiquitous as electricity.

But what’s everywhere stops making a difference. When everyone has access to intelligence, value shifts to what remains scarce. Creativity. Empathy. Courage. The ability to walk paths before they’re mapped.