Actually, that sounds quite similar.

And more important, AI companies are selling shovels, not gold.

Others will buy the shovels to dig for gold, most will fail, but the shovels are already sold, and part of the profit will be used to make more shovels until the gold fever settles or dies.

They would never shove the gold machine at you at every opportunity if it really created gold.

I think that’s the underlying criticism. If the enterprise is risky, speculative, or just straight up bullshit, then selling the shovels is the smartest move.