Pearl's Useful Work Illusion: 320K GPUs Deliver Zero AI

Pearl's Proof-of-Useful-Work protocol, marketed as simultaneously securing the blockchain while performing AI inference, produces zero useful AI computation despite consuming computing resources equivalent to 320,000 GPUs. This empirical finding exposes a critical gap between marketing claims and technical reality in emerging blockchain innovations, raising fundamental questions about the viability of 'useful work' consensus mechanisms. The research reveals concrete economic harm: GPU price surges of 38% and the displacement of legitimate research computing workloads.