There's a reason Adam Smith's feelings about landlords are scarcely distinguishable from those of Marx.

Im not sure i understand how AI matters here.

If rents are paid no matter what, you dont need AI to tell you to set it high.

But we know rents arent limitless because ability to pay is not limitless.

I think it perfectly fine market. But we slowly going to social agreement that place to live is same basic need as water and food and education. The issue is that everyone wants fancy place and not a communal space.

That's not how it works. There are tons of people who can pick rent vs buy. If rents go up, they'll switch to buy, opening up vacancies.

There are also people who can move to other locations.

If rents are up, you need more houses, it's really not that complicated.

They’re clearly willing to pay and they put a premium on living in a congested ice box over actual food or what normal people would consider quality of life.

I see nothing wrong with this market at all. The reality is that there’s plenty of people willing to live in these apartments, often splitting the rent with roommates. The more people that do that, the more the rent goes up because now it’s acceptable to have two or even three incomes paying what used to be the rent for a one bed room.

The only way for the little guy to win this game is to not play. Screw those overpopulated metros and go live somewhere else.