AI Wave Is a Bubble That Is Unlikely To Sustain

Morning pages #2

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

Welcome to yet another (public) version of morning pages.

Just a couple of hours ago, I was reading Financial Express, and one of its headlines read: “AI wave a bubble, unlikely to sustain, says Ruchir Sharma”.

Needless to say, I was excited beyond any bounds as it’s been weeks since I came across a piece that called AI a fag. Lol. No, like, really. With Mythos giving banks, insurance companies, and even governments headaches, it’s no joke at this point.

His viewpoint is that recently, AI has become the dominant topic, eclipsing everything else. He also draws parallels to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. He compares and contrasts, then briefly explains how that time proved favourable for a country like India, but this time the situation is much worse.

I agree. One point he makes that I really like and find so valuable is that the current hyper-fixation everyone has with AI is bound to fade away at some point. From my personal experience of reading the newspaper regularly, the news cycle is largely revolving around AI, with everything else pushed to the periphery. AI companies are raising funding rounds at near-trillion-dollar valuations, and we’re also seeing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of lawsuits concerning the heads of these companies.

These are some crazy times to live in. And when someone presents this nuanced view of how AI is more like the dot-com bubble of the past, it feels refreshing. Just as not all technology companies disappeared during the dot-com bubble bust, the same will happen to AI companies in contemporary times. Only the best — and to an extent, the most resourceful — ones will survive (and thrive).

Just because there’s an em-dash doesn’t mean this is AI-generated writing. And, by the way, I am also thinking about writing a piece on how AI-detecting softwares (even the one used in academia) are more or less of no use.

And after all this, the balance will be restored and the overlooked areas, as the author claims, will be getting their due attention.