AI slowdown calls justified but collapse of bubble may be more immediate threat

There is ample evidence that AI urgently needs regulating. Photograph: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Warnings about powerful and uncontrolled AI have dominated the headlines this past week. But even amid the omens of apocalypse, it is still worth asking if the entire AI-industrial complex is sailing towards a financial iceberg.

It will hardly be our most pressing concern if the bots are poised to take over the world, but a collapse of the AI bubble would have repercussions far beyond the US.