Ask Paul: June 27 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Let's kick off the final weekend of June a bit early with another massive Ask Paul and some great reader questions.
? Tariffs, price hikes, and tech
wright_is asks:

We are looking at replacing a lot of our technology this year. In the US, we rushed through purchases for new infrastructure equipment, which we won't actually configure and install for months, because the tariffpocalypse. Are you noticing price rises, or is it still pretty much status quo at the moment, when it comes to tech?

Coincidentally, I just happened on a Wirecutter article on this topic and looked specifically to see if there were any tech products in there. There are only a few: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are up 4.66 percent, for example. Granted, it's a sample of products, not a complete list. But overall, 25 percent of the products tracked were pricier and roughly two-thirds were the same price as before.

Without getting into the stupidity and flip-flopping nature of our government, it seems like we went through a period of uncertainty before figuring out that they will always back off when it comes to the biggest fights. And so we've sort of collectively calmed down. Apple isn't going to charge anyone $2000 for an iPhone that had cost $1000 a year earlier. Or whatever.

Where the tariffs seem to hit hardest here in the U.S. are on the constituents that did vote in these bozos, the poor and uneducated middle and lower-class Americans who suddenly find their grocery costs have gone up dramatically. (Oddly, given all the craziness in the world, gas prices are low, at least.) But so far, it seems like tech--with a few exceptions--has sailed through this. So far.

Uncertainty is the new normal, of course. So this could change any day. And then change again the next.
? Hot or not?
iantrem asks:

While AI isn't exactly maturing (far too early for that), there are definite winners and losers emerging. Do you think different AI products might become "best in class" for particular areas.

This is what we see right now, and given the fast-moving nature of AI, it's perhaps not surprising that the best AI for whatever workflow seems to change by the week. My expectation is that these things will eventually be roughly on par with each other, at least from the major players, and that the smaller AIs will either be good enough for many, broadly, or will be so specific to some task--like grammar/spellchecking and general writing help--that they will likewise be very good. This is sort of a "if everything is AI then nothing is AI" view, I guess, but it also speaks to the competitive issues Microsoft faces going forward.

I don't think I've written about this at length per se, but it's come up on Windows Weekly a few times. With Microsoft, Google, and others racing to establish their respective AI empires, we're seeing an interesting dynamic that isn't very typical in such a competitive market: They're all agreeing on interoperability...