Dear SoTA, Optimism is found in strange places during the early stages of 2026: amidst airstrikes, commentators cheer for change; among political gamesmanship, voters share hopes for progress; as human workforces are laid off en masse, technologists laud the potential of AI to solve our collective problems. Its in this final point that we see the widest gap between the current reality and the dearly hoped for outcome that dominates popular discourse. It is assumed a priori that AI technology ...