There's a point past which "intelligence" stops mattering as much, and IMO we're already there.
Consider which would be more useful (and profitable for its creator): a model that is 3x/5x/10x as "intelligent" as Mythos, for whatever your favorite yardstick of intelligence is? Or a model that is as "intelligent" as Opus 4.5, but can run at reasonable speed on a typical consumer laptop/cell phone?
The onlly way that happens is if America turns into zimbawe.
I've driven in a LOT of the USA. Sure Chicago, NYC, DC, LA, LV... They're all built up and feel modern.
Try driving anywhere in the Midwest outside of the big cities. Dilapidated carcas buildings everywhere. Urban and rural blight. Only jobs are low paying service work. Its bleak. Like, really bad poverty as a disease bleak.
And its crazy watching it too. They're ignorant (involuntatily), poor, and trapped. And democrats only seem to care about special interest of the week, so these areas vote republican.
I don't have a solution btw. Just something I've seen growing in the last 25 years. And its getting worse, not better.
That's why I personally believe Sanders and Mamdani have found so much success with the working class; they keep themselves separate from the Culture War slugfest that mainline Democrats either voluntarily engage in or let Republicans drag them into.
IMO the vast majority of those "culture war" issues (LGBT freedoms, etc) are incredibly important, but to the average poor rural American it feels incredibly distant from their day to day. I can't put my finger on it exactly but Democrats have a tendency to message on those issues in ways that are either counter-productive or get soundbit saying something moronic. So when Fox News and whatnot say that Democrats are prioritizing other groups over them and message on it day after day, it's not hard to see why that propaganda becomes effective.
That's not to say that Sanders/Mamdani/etc don't message on social issues, they obviously do, but they are somehow effective at not alienating voters who may otherwise latch onto that in a negative way.
I don't have a good solution. Just my observations.
When I was younger and it was a new thing it was quite a shock since American media obviously doesnt portray it that way. It is quite a contrast to even how the more run down parts of Canada look.
Great.