AI is a bubble – one whose futuristic sheen deflects attention from a core of hot air. Anyone with sense recognizes this. But will it finally burst this year? Unfortunately, we have our doubts. On the latest Aftermath Hours, we talk about that.
We begin the episode by diving into the good and the bad of this brand new year. First we reflect on my time attending Awesome Games Done Quick, the annual speedrunning marathon that raises money for charity and just generally rules. Gaming communities can be forces for good – at least, when they don’t allow their ranks to be overwhelmed by shitheads. Who knew? Then we move on to less positive happenings: Ubisoft just shut down an entire studio mere weeks after its workers voted to unionize. Suspicious, to say the least.
Finally, we close out the show by predicting the year ahead with 100 percent, crystal-clear accuracy. Will GTA 6 finally come out? Yes. Elder Scrolls VI? Absolutely not. As for the aforementioned AI bubble, well, it’s complicated (see below).
You can find this week's episode below and on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you prefer to listen to podcasts. If you like what you hear, make sure to leave a review so that we can forge a giant needle with which to personally pop the AI bubble, ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity.
Here’s an excerpt from the conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Nathan: Do we think that this is the year the AI bubble bursts?
Chris: It’s hard to tell. You can say with certainty that it’s about to burst, but it’s been about to burst for a while now, and I’m skeptical that [it’s gonna happen overnight]. Your brain says it has to, and then all of this is a fiction anyway, so maybe they can continue to make it go, but it will just get shittier.
I think yes, but that presumes the shared reality that we will have lines up with how things work.
Riley: When you think about NFTs or whatever, they required people to buy them, and nobody bought them. The metaverse required people to use it, and nobody used it. But here, it doesn’t seem to matter. In order for the bubble to burst, it has to float into a wall. What is the wall that it hits? Even if none of us have docked it at this point, does it matter? [Companies] shove it into Microsoft Office, or they put it in Google, and I don’t use it, but they can charge me more for my G Suite.
I’m definitely on Team “It has to burst, come on, this is absurd,” but what causes it? One of those big investors pulls out? It makes enough children kill themselves?
Nathan: Clearly not a problem in this country.
I think in the meantime also we’re gonna see more and more moments like what’s happening with Larian where they talked about using AI to make games, people got mad at them, and it seems like they’re digging their heels in. But I think we’re gonna hear about AI usage on more major games, and people are gonna have to make up their minds about how they react – where they draw their lines in the sand. As long as executives continue to believe that they can use AI to improve efficiency, allowing them to make games faster and for less money, they’re not gonna step back from this ledge.
Chris: One thing I will say is that the sentiment toward AI will continue to get more and more rancid. Starting the year off with what Grok has been doing and with what X has been doing, I think it is only going to get worse. I don’t know if that actually means anything materially to these companies. But with Grok doing sex crimes out in the open, there’s a nonzero chance it ends with X getting removed from the App Store in some capacity. Being on X could be a crime at this point. As people live with it more and more, it’s gonna become a meme how bad this shit is.
Nathan: I hope so. My concern is that people will grow numb to it. Going along with what I said a moment ago about people finding out that their favorite games are being made with AI, it also feels like a lot of those companies and a lot of the people in charge are gonna do their best to convince everyone that it’s here, it was inevitable, and now you’ve just gotta live with it. To try to win through attrition, basically – to get people to begrudgingly accept that this is just how things are now. And so maybe those rancid vibes turn into people being like “Well, what can be done, really? This is just the world now.”
So that’s my concern: that people could succumb to a state of numbness and acceptance instead of maintaining that energy of “Fuck this shit, this is bad, and I don’t want it in any of the things that I use personally.”
Recommended
Luke Plunkett
