Pictured above, the personal computer after the AI bubble

Colorized 2028

The 2026 AI Reality Check

As we settle into the new year, the tech landscape looks drastically different than the utopian future we were promised just a few years ago. If 2025 taught us anything, it is that the shine of novelty eventually wears off, leaving behind the stark reality of implementation. According to a recent piece in Bloomberg Opinion, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was “slop,” a term describing the overwhelming flood of low-quality, machine-generated content that has clogged our social feeds and search engines. Instead of the immediate cures for diseases or effortless solutions to climate change that early enthusiasts predicted, the internet has become a chaotic mix of synthetic media and spam.

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The Rise and Fall of the AI Bubble? by L.A. Davenport

🤖💥 Are we living in a trillion-dollar hallucination?

In my latest column on Pushing the Wave, I revisit the AI boom—and ask whether, as Carole Cadwalladr suggests, it’s become just another financial bubble.

From Dutch tulips to dotcoms to neural nets, history may not repeat itself, but it certainly seems to rhyme.

📖 Read now →

Why AI isn’t intelligent - and the AI theft of my work

I discover that a while back some of my published work was appropriated by Meta and fed into their AI system. I was never approached for licensing, never paid – they just took my IP without permission and used it for their own commercial gain.

To me that alone is reason enough to never use AI. But I won’t use it anyway. I like writing – the act of creating material is one of the main reasons I…

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Ai tool bubble burst: Discover practical steps to protect your business from the potential collapse of overhyped AI tools. Learn how to diversify, adapt, and thrive.

Companies and individuals are rushing to adopt AI tools faster than ever. But what happens when the hype fades? If history is any guide, many of these tools will vanish, leaving only a few dominant players. This isn’t just speculation—similar patterns happened after the dot-com crash. Let’s break down why this matters and how you can prepare.

Why Over-Reliance on AI Tools is Risky

We live in an era where AI tools promise to simplify work, boost productivity, and solve complex problems. But depending too much on them creates vulnerabilities. When tech bubbles burst, smaller companies often fold, taking their products with them. Without careful planning, businesses relying on niche AI tools could face chaos.

For example, imagine your team uses an AI writing assistant or project management tool that suddenly shuts down. You’d lose access to workflows built around it. The bigger issue? Tech giants may control the market afterward, limiting innovation and raising costs.

What History Teaches Us About Tech Bubbles

The dot-com bubble showed us how quickly markets can shift. Thousands of startups disappeared, while Amazon and Google emerged stronger. A similar trend might play out with AI tools. Investors are pouring billions into AI development—not all of it sustainable. Many tools exist because of funding, not profitability.

Action Item: Evaluate which AI tools you use daily. Are they essential, or do they create unnecessary complexity?

Steps to Protect Your Business from Disruption

Preparing now can save time, money, and frustration later. Here’s how to stay ahead:

Diversify Your Toolset

Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. Use multiple tools for critical tasks so you’re never dependent on a single provider. For instance, if you rely heavily on an AI chatbot platform, have a backup option ready.

Prioritize Interoperability

Choose tools that integrate easily with others. Platforms offering open APIs give you flexibility. If one tool fails, switching becomes smoother.

Invest in Training

Empower your team to operate without heavy reliance on AI. Upskilling ensures continuity even if tools disappear. Teaching employees manual processes alongside automated ones builds resilience.

Monitor Market Trends

Stay informed about the health of companies behind your favorite tools. Financial reports, layoffs, or leadership changes can signal trouble ahead. Proactive monitoring helps you pivot before disruptions occur.

Actionable Tips to Future-Proof Your Workflow

• Create a list of alternative tools for every AI solution you use.
• Document workflows so they aren’t tied to specific platforms.
• Test free trials of competing tools regularly to keep options open.
• Set aside budget for unexpected transitions between tools.
• Focus on building human expertise, not just tech dependency.

Key Takeaways for Long-Term Success

The AI boom won’t last forever. By diversifying, staying flexible, and investing in people, you can weather the storm. Remember, the goal isn’t to avoid AI entirely—it’s to use it wisely. Tools should enhance your capabilities, not define them.

Act today to safeguard tomorrow. Start auditing your current tools, training your team, and exploring alternatives. Preparation is the best defense against uncertainty.

The AI economy is full of financial gimmicks.

so this is all the hype behind “homeschooling?”

Byju demonstrates a math concept in an video for Think & Learn.

Photo: The Byju’s app, 2019. Getty Images/Rest of World

Photo: Think and Learn staff in Bengaluru, 2017. Getty Images/Rest of World

Photo: A teacher for a Byju’s company conducts an online coding class. Getty Images/Rest of World

Photo: A Byju’s advertisement in New Delhi, 2023. Getty Images/Rest of World

Photo: Think And Learn staff in Bengaluru, 2017. Getty Images/Rest of World

Q: How did the AI hype start?

A: OpenAI became the first American company to demonstrate that if you take a snapshot of the whole known internet and all digitized books in existence without worrying too much about copyright law, you can create a model so good that its output would be almost indistinguishable from that of a DC bureaucrat with mediocre intelligence.

DeepSeek just proved Lina Khan right

Q: How is China involved?

A: As a part of its larger effort to contain China, the U.S. government has been on a mission of stopping Chinese companies from becoming leaders in different areas of technology. It has done so by wielding control over global supply chains and protecting American tech companies from competition in the process. The U.S. blocked Huawei’s entry into the United States just as it was overtaking Apple to become the second biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world; it stopped European countries from installing Huawei manufactured 5G infrastructure when it was clearly more economical; and most recently, it passed legislation banning TikTok, a Chinese social media app that had become massively popular in United States and whose recommendation algorithm no American social media app had been able to outperform.

The U.S. claim that Huawei and other Chinese tech companies are inextricably linked to China’s geopolitical strategy and put Western companies and people at heightened risk of surveillance and corporate espionage is, of course, grounded in reality. DeepSeek isn’t shy about how much data it collects on its platform, including even your keystrokes

…

However, because DeepSeek is open source and can run locally on a separate device, Chairman Xi Jinping’s prying eyes can be shielded.

Maintaining global technological dominance is one of the key concerns U.S. policymakers have repeatedly cited, and have identified AI as a crucial technology in maintaining that dominance. In 2018, when the U.S. government was in the process of banning Huawei, it realized that it would need to do the same with downstream technologies like semiconductor chips, the main component used in CPUs and GPUs. The severe chip shortage due to global supply chain disruptions during Covid-19 showed that advanced chips are a global supply chain bottleneck and a scarce resource. By 2022 the Biden administration had put comprehensive sanctions on China, stopping the export of these chips to the country and preventing Chinese AI companies from accessing the latest and most efficient GPUs. At the same time, it passed the CHIPS act, subsidizing national semiconductor manufacturing with over $50 billion.

Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple Are Racing Toward $4 Trillion. What Will Decide Who Gets There First.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/microsoft-nvidia-apple-ai-stocks-8aff8e8e via @BarronsOnline

#tech #ai #Artificialintelligence #monopoly #FTC #Startup #valuation

Party like it’s 1999

•The Top 10 stocks in the S&P500 make up 35% of the index

•Low Interest Rates ▶️Monopolized Industries

#investor #qe #ennovance #ftc

https://x.com/mohossain/status/1733534931580543463?s=46&t=GtuOmoaTjOwevz2JidiiDQ

I feel we are now backed into a corner with respect to funding the internet. It’s clear that now that investment bros are no longer willing to pour money into random tech companies as if they were buying beanie babies, we are going to eventually have to pay subscriptions or something.

However, in the attempt to stave this off, companies have increasingly been finding more ways to squeeze money out of us via egregious advertising, Orwellian tracking and flogging our personal data to the highest bidder, and now all sorts of weird unethical AI shenanigans.

So the problem I, as a web punter, have, is that I know I’m going to have to pay for what I use sooner or later, but all the companies I might pay have long since proven themselves about as trustworthy as Sweeney Todd. I see no reason at all to believe that if I pay them money for their service, that they won’t happily take that, and then continue making pies out of me as well. After all, the pies are very profitable, why would they give them up?

This is why I have never signed up for YouTube Premium, despite being driven nuts by their advertising. Because I don’t trust them for a moment not to keep misusing my data, and to wait until enough people are subscribing, and then bring the ads back, or dream up something worse.

People in charge of big companies tend to value trust at nought, but it matters. And for the most part, it’s gone. And we don’t give our money to people we don’t trust.

Theoretical physicist @michiokaku calls chatbots ‘glorified tape recorders’ (via @FareedZakaria )

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/business/ai-quantum-computer-kaku?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_msn #AI #Chatgpt #valuation #tech #crypto #productivity #hypecycle

@AswathDamodaran @carlquintanilla

https://x.com/mohossain/status/1665754370963636224?s=46&t=GtuOmoaTjOwevz2JidiiDQ

Fed: sorry, some of our friends were too greedy and that’s why you’ll have to go unemployed for some time. Or bankrupt. Or whatever. We don’t care much. Actually, we’ll do it all over again when this is done!

Re-evaluating exists post tech bubble burst. What would… Shazam have yielded today?

Whatever happened to smart home?

you know I knew the new tech/startup/ipo bubble was gonna burst sooner rather than later but I didn’t think it’d be due to the Elongated Muskrat putting his fist clean through the side of it

ipo: The current IPO craze is starting to look a lot like 1999 tech bubble

ipo: The current IPO craze is starting to look a lot like 1999 tech bubble

By Joanna Ossinger
Initial public offerings have been doing extremely well lately, bringing to mind the excesses of the tech bubble in the late 1990s.

Shares in Chinese toymaker Pop Mart International Ltd. jumped as much as 112 per cent in their debut Friday, after home-rental platform Airbnb Inc. closed 113 per cent above its IPO price in New York. JD Health International Inc. surged 56 per…

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