LEADING THROUGH AN AI BUBBLE

Lots of companies will implode in any short-term bubble. But the best leaders will adopt and adapt to AI after the froth subsides.

- By ALYSON SHONTELL

IN AUGUST, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman delivered a stark message at a dinner in San Francisco: We are in an AI bubble, and it’s going to pop. “A lot of people are going to lose a phenomenal amount of money,” Altman told journalists. He likened it to the dotcom crash, but potentially worse.

A few weeks later, Altman’s board chair and fellow AI founder Bret Taylor backed him up: “It is both true that AI will transform the economy [and that] we’re also in a bubble.”

A seemingly endless amount of capital has whipped up the froth for both tech incumbents and startups, which are receiving eye-popping valuations faster than ever. Lots of these companies will implode. But the underlying technology will keep improving regardless of any short-term bubble, and some companies will emerge as the Googles and Amazons of the AI era.