There Is An AI Bubble
An economic jack-in-the-box is about to go off.
Anyone who had the misfortune of being self-aware during 2008 is painfully cognizant of the concept of an economic bubble. For those lucky enough not to be, or for those who have dissociative amnesia with 2008, an economic bubble is when shares or assets soar in value way past what they are really worth, thanks to unfounded speculation. This inflated “bubble” will then “burst” when a market correction unveils the genuine value of these assets, spooking investors and buyers, leading to mass sell-offs, and, therefore, crashing the valuation of assets, which leaves many high and dry. While 2008 was a spectacularly big bubble-bursting event, even smaller ones, like the dot com bubble, can decimate entire industries. With this in mind, is the AI industry, with its grand promises, insane stock valuations and investor hype, in a bubble? I think so. Not only that, but it is ripe to burst in the next few years. Here’s why.
Let’s start with a problem I’ve covered before. AI is being misused.
AI has proven time and time again that it isn’t reliable enough to replace humans, and won’t be for a long time. Instead, it should be used to create tools that augment and enhance human workers. This way, you get AI’s benefits without any drawbacks. This advice hasn’t come from an ethics committee…
