The biggest seven tech companies make up more than one-third of the entire S&P 500, and they’ve all made a big bet on artificial general intelligence as a revolutionary, transformative technology. But the release of Open AI’s GPT-5 shows that we might be getting diminishing returns from the accumulation of Big Data to make large language models that can think and learn. What happens when investors decide that the big bet on AI was a bad one? And what should policymakers do in response?
This week on our live show, Prospect executive editor David Dayen talks with freelance journalist Bryan McMahon and Revolving Door Project researcher Dylan Gyauch-Lewis, both of whom wrote pieces for the website this week about AI. The sheer costs and the energy needs of the AI build-out are almost impossible, the public-health impacts disturbing, and the social isolation and misery fostered by AI profound. Moreover, the promises about the benefits of AI may not come to fruition. That could hit the economy hard. David, Bryan, and Dylan answer that in detail.
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