Let AI Burn
The article argues that the current AI industry is fueled by unsustainable hype and investment, leading to a market bubble reminiscent of past tech crashes. It warns that the massive financial burn and lack of real-world utility could result in a harsh correction. The author suggests letting the AI bubble burst to clear out speculative excess.
Background
Ed Zitron is a tech-industry writer and critic, author of the newsletter "Where's Your Ed At?", known for his skeptical, often scathing takes on Silicon Valley hype cycles. This piece argues that the current AI boom (driven by companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, and Anthropic) is an unsustainable bubble — a hype-driven, money-losing "burn" that will eventually collapse under its own weight, much like earlier tech fads (e.g., crypto, the dot-com bubble). He contends that the massive infrastructure spending, lack of profitable consumer products, and "growth at all costs" mentality resemble a Ponzi-like dynamic, and that the only rational response is to step back and let it fail.