I’ve been watching the AI arms race unfold with a mixture of fascination and dread for a while now. Every week brings another announcement about some massive AI model that’s supposedly going to change everything, backed by billions in funding and wild promises about achieving artificial general intelligence. It’s exhausting, frankly. So when I came across India’s latest budget announcement committing $90 billion to AI infrastructure, I expected more of the same – another country trying to build their own GPT-killer and join the race to the bottom.

There’s a special circle of hell reserved for drivers who cruise along at 80km/h in a 100 zone, only to suddenly discover their accelerator the moment an overtaking lane appears. And judging by the avalanche of comments I’ve been reading online, I’m far from alone in this frustration.

Look, I get it. We all have different comfort levels when driving. Some people are naturally more cautious, and that’s fine. But what baffles me – genuinely baffles me – is the complete lack of awareness these drivers seem to have about their impact on everyone else around them.

There’s something deeply satisfying about getting money back on purchases you were going to make anyway. It’s like finding a twenty-dollar note in an old jacket pocket, except you can orchestrate it to happen regularly. I’ve been thinking about this lately, particularly as I’ve watched the cashback scene evolve over the past few years.

The basic concept is brilliantly simple: shop through a cashback platform, and you get a percentage of your purchase returned to your account. It’s not revolutionary – it’s essentially commission-sharing – but it works. The retailer pays the platform for sending customers their way, and the platform shares part of that commission with you. Everyone wins, which is rare enough in modern commerce to be worth celebrating.