Slate Daily Feed What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - Is the A.I. Bubble Bursting?
Sep 5, 2025
Ed Zitron, author of the newsletter Where’s Your Ed At and host of Better Offline, shares his critical insights on the current state of artificial intelligence. He discusses the potential bursting of the A.I. bubble, drawing parallels to past tech booms. Zitron highlights the financial struggles of companies like OpenAI and the unrealistic expectations investors have about generative A.I.'s profitability. With a sharp focus on the skepticism surrounding inflated valuations, he warns of the societal implications if these technologies aren’t implemented sustainably.
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LLMs Are Economically Unsustainable
- Large language models (LLMs) are economically unsustainable and have become a load-bearing but unprofitable part of the economy.
- Ed Zitron argues they steal value, burn environmental resources, and require massive subsidies to run.
Hype Without Revenue Signals A Bubble
- Companies hype AI's future value while avoiding clear revenue disclosure, repeating bubble dynamics from crypto and the metaverse.
- Zitron warned in 2024 that AI investment has become a runaway speculative bubble.
Reassess AI-Driven Valuations
- Re-evaluate tech valuations and avoid assuming AI-driven growth justifies sky-high multiples.
- Focus investments on companies with clear, rational fundamentals rather than AI hype.