From coast to coast, the people of the United States are growing resentful of AI.
It’s not hard to see why: they’re constantly told the tech will take their jobs and leave them for broke, while the data centers used to train them hike up their utility bills and belch horrid fumes into their communities.
Then there’s the harrowing economics of AI, infinitely less tangible but impossible to ignore. With over $1 trillion shoveled into AI so far, it’s increasingly difficult not to wonder: was it a good idea for one of the world’s richest countries to go all-in on this stuff?
Evidently, the public isn’t so sure. A recent poll conducted by the news platform Haystack News found that the overwhelming majority of respondents are terrified about the threat of an AI bubble: the massive gap between AI spending and AI’s actual return on investment.
They’re not wrong to be concerned. While financial analysts have long warned that the AI bubble could spell disaster for Wall Street and the tech industry overall, the mismatch between funds allocated and revenue generated has grown so large that some experts warn it could easily spark an economic meltdown.
As the polling shows, everyday Americans are keenly aware of any potential ripple effects, with 55 percent of the over 4,100 respondents saying they’re “very concerned” about a bubble in the AI industry. An additional 14.5 percent said they were “somewhat concerned,” while a piddling 9.4 percent were “not very concerned.”
Bearish observers of the AI industry may have gotten their first taste of things to come on Tuesday, as a broad stock market scare wiped nearly $1 trillion in market value off the books. That sell-off was fueled by falling shares in AI-heavy companies like Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, Alphabet, and Intel. Even Elon Musk’s freshly-listed SpaceX briefly dipped below its IPO price of $150.
Whether tech stocks continue to plummet in the short term is anyone’s guess. Long term, it clearly doesn’t take a Wall Street wiz to read the writing on the wall.
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