Sam Altman acknowledged that the AI sector could be in a bubble, warning that investors may be overly enthusiastic about its potential. He compared the current excitement around AI to the dot-com bubble, where substantial investments were made without guarantees of profitability. Altman emphasized that like historical bubbles, the surge in AI startups might not be sustainable. He has confidence that OpenAI will weather any downturn and emerge stronger, reflecting a belief that the underlying technology remains vital, despite overvaluation concerns.
When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth. Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes.
If you look at most of the bubbles in history, like the tech bubble, there was a real thing. Tech was really important. The internet was a really big deal. People got overexcited.
During the dot-com bubble, companies rushed to build telecom infrastructure while investors poured loads of money into internet-based businesses - only for it to pop when it became apparent that these companies couldn't generate profit.
Today, you could swap telecom infrastructure with 'data centers' and internet companies with 'AI startups' and argue much the same thing.
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