#ai-hype

#ai-hype

OpenAI's August launch of its GPT-5 large language model was somewhat of a disaster. There were glitches during the livestream, with the model generating charts with obviously inaccurate numbers. In a Reddit AMA with OpenAI employees, users complained that the new model wasn't friendly, and called for the company to restore the previous version. Most of all, critics griped that GPT-5 fell short of the stratospheric expectations that OpenAI has been juicing for years. Promised as a game changer, GPT-5 might have indeed played the game better. But it was still the same game.

People who think AI is a bubble could say it's "overheated" or it's "inflated"-which are descriptive terms that definitely apply. But they're not using those terms. They're using the term "bubble." So, what is the single most defining characteristic of a bubble? Like...in real life. Bubbles pop. From a recent LinkedIn interaction. That's the whole point of bubbles. When you go into nature, do you see bubbles that expand and contract and survive? No. They pop. It's kind of their main characteristic!

The AI news cycle of the summer captured themes including the challenge of starting a career, the importance of technology in the China/U.S. trade war, and mounting anxiety about the impact of the technology. But in terms of finance and investing, Deutsche Bank sees markets "on edge" and hoping for a soft landing amid bubble fears. In part, it blames tech CEOs for egging on the market with overpromises, leading to inflated hopes and dreams, many spurred on by tech leaders' overpromises.

"I think that we have all been sold a lot of hypnosis around what's about to happen with AI," he said on the "20VC" podcast.

Supposedly, the word of the year in technology is "agentic." By the end of the year it'll probably be "bubble," but for now the world is meant to tremble before the awesome promise of agentic. It takes AI to a whole new level! It heralds the new human-free workforce! It keeps Woody Harrelson out of the rain! As the shiny object economy grows complacent with magic interactive chatbots, the agentic AI era to transform those humdrum chatbots into something... else.

"You cannot do industrial programs in English," Skrygan says early on in our conversation, directly challenging the notion popularized by Nvidia's CEO that even the toughest coding tasks can become approachable through natural language alone.