I think it’s because a lot of people feel like AI is being pushed from the top a lot with all kinds of spectacular claims / expectations, while it’s actually still difficult to apply to a lot of problems.

The AI bubble bursting would be somewhat of an “I told you so!” moment for a lot of people.

And there’s also a large group that’s genuinely afraid to lose their job because of it, so for that group it’s very much understandable.

Whether or not the predictions of the bubble popping are exaggerated or not, I cannot tell; it feels like most companies investing in AI know that the expectations are huge and potentially unrealistic (AGI/ASI in the next few years), but they have money to burn and the cost of missing out on this opportunity would be tremendous. I know that this is the position that both Meta and Google shared with their investors.

So it all seems to be a very well calculated risk.