This comparison is always weak, every time it gets raised.
The internet started with useful use cases, and a bubble occurred later during a monetization phase. During _no_ point in that arc were several hundred billion dollars spent.
It of course behooves AI boosters to pretend these are analogous. However, a better comparison might be the Metaverse. Famed “all in on AI” CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted that we would soon do all of our work within the Metaverse.
How did that go?
ethsmither on
Curious what everyone thinks. When this bubble bursts what happens?
To me the rate of change feels much faster than previous technologies.
Varorson on
No they’re not the same, of course there are differences.
One of the key differences imo is that the creation of the Internet and the later dot com bubble led to a massive influx of jobs and opportunities, which led to a bunch of companies being unable to pay their new employees. Conversely, with AI, we’re seeing *mass layoffs and loss of jobs* for the sake of putting more money into the higher ups’ pockets. So the effect on the lower classes happens while the bubble builds up, rather than when it pops, and most of the damage when it pops will be on the upper class who’s filling their pockets and passing around money in investments to other companies before it does.
imaginary_num6er on
It’s not a bubble. It’s a super cycle. It’s like the US industrialization, rearmant of the US for WWII, and the reconstruction of Europe and Japan
5 Comments
This comparison is always weak, every time it gets raised.
The internet started with useful use cases, and a bubble occurred later during a monetization phase. During _no_ point in that arc were several hundred billion dollars spent.
It of course behooves AI boosters to pretend these are analogous. However, a better comparison might be the Metaverse. Famed “all in on AI” CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted that we would soon do all of our work within the Metaverse.
How did that go?
Curious what everyone thinks. When this bubble bursts what happens?
To me the rate of change feels much faster than previous technologies.
No they’re not the same, of course there are differences.
One of the key differences imo is that the creation of the Internet and the later dot com bubble led to a massive influx of jobs and opportunities, which led to a bunch of companies being unable to pay their new employees. Conversely, with AI, we’re seeing *mass layoffs and loss of jobs* for the sake of putting more money into the higher ups’ pockets. So the effect on the lower classes happens while the bubble builds up, rather than when it pops, and most of the damage when it pops will be on the upper class who’s filling their pockets and passing around money in investments to other companies before it does.
It’s not a bubble. It’s a super cycle. It’s like the US industrialization, rearmant of the US for WWII, and the reconstruction of Europe and Japan
When do I get my CD with 100 hours of free AI??
AOL, Prodigy, Netscape, geocities….