*The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble*
Edward Zitron
Jul 21, 2025
55 min read
Good journalism is making sure that history is actively captured and
appropriately described and assessed, and it's accurate to describe
things as they currently are as alarming.
And I am /alarmed./
Alarm is not a state of weakness, or belligerence, or myopia. My concern
does not dull my vision, even though it's convenient to frame it as
somehow alarmist, like I have some hidden agenda or bias toward doom. I
profoundly dislike the financial waste, the environmental destruction,
and, fundamentally, I dislike the attempt to gaslight people into
swearing fealty to a sickly and frail psuedo-industry where everybody
but NVIDIA and consultancies lose money.
I also dislike the fact that I, and others like me, are held to a
remarkably different standard to those who paint themselves as
"optimists," which typically means "people that agree with what the
market wishes were true." Critics are continually badgered, prodded,
poked, mocked, and jeered at for not automatically aligning with the
idea that generative AI will be this massive industry, constantly having
to prove themselves, as if somehow there's something malevolent or
craven about criticism, that critics "do this for clicks" or "to be a
contrarian."
I don't do anything for clicks. I don't have any stocks or short
positions. My agenda is simple: I like writing, it comes to me
naturally, I have a podcast, and it is, on some level, my job to try and
understand what the tech industry is doing on a day-to-day basis. It is
easy to try and dismiss what I say as going against the grain because
"AI is big," but I've been railing against bullshit bubbles since 2021 —
the_anti-remote work push_
<https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-upcoming-remote-work-company/> (_and
the people behind it_
<https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-big-media-anti-remote-op-ed-complex/>),_the
Clubhouse and audio social networks bubble_
<https://www.wheresyoured.at/clubhouse-is-the-big-stinker-that/>,_the
NFT bubble_
<https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-nihilism-and-exploitation-of/>,_the
made-up quiet quitting panic_
<https://www.wheresyoured.at/quiet-quitting-and-the-death-of-office/>,
and I even, though not as clearly as I wished,_called that something was
up with FTX several months before it imploded_
<https://www.wheresyoured.at/sam-bankrun-fraud/>.
This isn't "contrarianism." It's the kind of skepticism of power and
capital that's necessary to meet these moments, and if it's necessary to
dismiss my work because it makes you feel icky inside, get a therapist
or see a priest.
Nevertheless, I am /alarmed/, and while I have said some of these things
separately, based on recent developments, I think it's necessary to say
why.
In short, I believe the AI bubble is deeply unstable, built on vibes and
blind faith, and when I say "the AI bubble," I mean the entirety of the
AI trade.
And it's alarmingly simple, too.
[...]
continua qui: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/
