"His far-sighted blend of tech criticism and class analysis has found Doctorow time and again at the bleeding edge of commentary on our techno-capitalist society. In many ways, his screeds on topics like tech broligarchs and enshittification broke the mold to allow room for the kind of tech-critical reporting being done by media projects like Tech Policy Press and , or the podcasts" Tech Won't Save Us," and " Better Offline.""
"In his essay, Doctorow recounts a conversation he had with an undergraduate student after delivering a lecture on the AI bubble, in which he reiterated that AI investors are propping up the US economy. "So, you're saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that's going to burst and take the whole economy with it?" the student asked fearfully. "Yes, that's right," the tech critic responded. "Okay, but what can we do about that?""
"Doctorow answered that the bubble is being propped up by tech mega -corporations who are now begging investors to come aboard, now that their growth potential is slowing to a halt. To court investors, the monopolists are selling a lie that AI can replace human workers - when in reality, AI experiments are failing at 95 percent of companies that attempt them."
A concentrated portion of the stock market rests on a handful of AI companies that lack clear paths to profitability, creating systemic financial vulnerability. Tech megacorporations are courting investors by promoting the narrative that AI will replace human labor, even though most real-world AI experiments fail. Sales pressure and investor expectations are prompting decisions to cut workers based on promised AI gains that do not materialize. A bursting of this hype-driven bubble could cascade through the economy, producing widespread financial disruption tied to overvalued AI investments.
Read at Futurism
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