Until very recently, the hype (and genuine expectations) over generative AI had reached almost fever pitch. NVIDIA, probably the clearest bellwether indicator of AI bullishness, has seen its stock price rise 16-fold over the past three years (Oct 2022-25) and in July 2025 became the first public company to ever be valued at $4 trillion (just a few weeks ahead of Microsoft passing that same mark).
The techno-optimist view has been so dominant that every other week there seems to be a new story claiming that artificial general intelligence is near and that the so-called ‘singularity’ may be within a few years; the real problem from that perspective is whether we are heading over this precipice at breakneck speed with no governance or brakes in place.
And yet, in just the past few weeks, the number of stories about AI bubbles or even AI winter has accelerated. There have always been a number of vocal sceptics over the past few years, but perhaps the one event that set off this current wave of hand-wringing was an MIT study that claimed 95% of organizations see no measurable return on their investment in these technologies, combined with some vocal disappointment over the recent release of ChatGPT 5.0. Since then, the voices of alarm have accelerated. In just the past few days, the Bank of England has warned of the dangers of an AI bubble bursting, as has the IMF.
Where do you fall on the spectrum from AI bull to AI bear? Evangelist or Cassandra? Are you optimistic about the technology AND our ability to govern this emergent technology? An AI techno-optimist but pessimistic about our capacity to avoid catastrophic societal outcomes? Generally positive about the technology, but less concerned since you are more of a gradualist? Or are you a Marcusian Sceptic who has been waiting for the bubble to burst?