AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All

I talked to the scholars who literally wrote the book on tech bubbles—and applied their test.

Oct 27, 2025 6:00 AM

ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGES

AI may not simply be “a bubble,” or even an enormous bubble. It may be the ultimate bubble. What you might cook up in a lab if your aim was to engineer the Platonic ideal of a tech bubble. One bubble to burst them all. I’ll explain.

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The AI Issue

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Brian Merchant is a writer based in Los Angeles. He’s the author of The One Device, the book Blood in the Machine, and the newsletter of the same name. ... Read More

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