Smash Notes

Are There Bubbles in AI Right Now?

From the episode: Ken Griffin on AI, Midterm Elections and Fiscal Policy

Answer

Ken Griffin says there are almost certainly bubbles within the present moment, and any radical transformation of the economy is generally intertwined with a bubble.

He remembers 1999 and 2000, and the metrics used to value Internet companies. Some Internet companies had pretty fanciful business models. He wishes he had kept his Amazon stock from that moment. The Internet was the great bubble, he says, and he asks whether it could be more of a part of daily life today than it is. A few years ago he was updating an Xbox for his son, who was 13. His son looked at him and said, Dad, you lived before the Internet existed. Ken Griffin answered that he was born after the dinosaurs disappeared, but yes, there was life before the Internet. A 20-year-old now finds that idea incomprehensible.

Ken Griffin says such bubbles often coincide with giant technological transformations, including the railroads. What is left in the wake is often game-changing for the world. The companies on the other side of the bubble are the market leaders for decades to come.

Grokipedia·Ken Griffin·Internet

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