Faine Greenwood: This all feels like it’s going to end poorly

This all feels like it’s going to end poorly

There’s a real vibe of “I don’t understand this but we can’t be behind the curve” among c-suite types right now.

Oh, it already is. Same thing happened with "Blockchain." Lots of people were talking about "how do we integrate with the blockchain?" And then I'd ask, "for what?" Nobody seemed to have a good answer for that.

ah yes I remember that shit vividly

Maybe we were in some of the same meetings. ;)

Before that, it was “turnkey.” I remember laughing hysterically after a meeting, bc the person in charge kept urging everyone to implement a turnkey solution, but couldn’t explain what it was.

I remember a big meeting when I was at SiriusXM about how we were going to make NFTs... of podcasts... for??? reasons???

Oof. Yeah, that was another entertaining trend. I think some c-suite types saw how much real money people were willing to spend on in-game assets in MMOs and thought, "how do we create that economy in the real world?"

THIS DIGITAL FILE IS TOTALLY UNIQUE AND I OWN IT. OK, but I just took a screen shot. WAIT. NO. YOU CAN'T DO THAT. But I did. BUT IT'S NON-FUNGIBLE!!! I funged it.

And now “make good games” seems to have have gotten the baby/bathwater treatment as well

Pogs would have been a better idea

To be fair, that would have been the optimal time to sell GIFs of John Fugelsang and Frank Conniff at a premium.

if you dig deep enough you find out the people hyping AI are the same gormless dweebs that hyped blockchain. you can often just swap "AI" for "blockchain" or vice versa and get the same pitch deck, because it's all just vaporware empty promises fishing for VC money.

Yup. People looking for the next dotcom boom.

In other news about trendy things & ludicrous amounts of money : www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

THE PICKLR, INDOOR PICKLEBALL FRANCHISE, CLOSES SERIES B FUNDING WITH $59 MILLION VALUATIONwww.prnewswire.com /PRNewswire/ -- The Picklr, North America's fastest-growing indoor pickleball franchise, closed their Series B financing with a valuation of $59 million,...

I mean... fair. But pickleball is actually a thing that people are doing. It has a purpose. It isn't trying to be something it's not.

I'd agree if PICKLR promised to cure cancer, replace your workforce, write your emails, and discover new food recipes.

People in my current industry *still* take blockchain seriously, some even retain enthusiasm for it. I honestly think the only reason the fixation has died down is the new shiny object. It's painful.

If there's a technical equivalent of Candid Camera or the Upright Citizens Brigade, they should create a technical fad with a ridiculous name just so we can hear very serious people ask, "How do we integrate with frabjabulatoriousium?"

This would be shockingly easy to do. So easy, think it may have happened already. More than once.

Problem is, this time there are big players pushing "AI" which gives it legitimacy. Microsoft seems all-in, Google is scrambling in FOMO panic, heck even Apple is adding AI crap. Leading to many more people in the "I don't know why, but we need it" bandwagon and the resulting meltdown will be huge.

It's going to be like facebook burning 50 billion on the metaverse except every major tech company on earth and unlike facebook, they aren't going to be able to eat that kind of loss. It's going to be a bloodbath.

Yep, plus non-tech companies pissing money away while simultaneously laying off people based on speculation and outright lies that AI will replace them. I don't know what the effect of the dotcom boom was outside tech (I was young), but this time it's everyone's problem.

Weirdly I got an email for a Fintech conference today and one of the speakers is ‘Head of Blockchain’ for a large U.K. bank. Amazed that title still exists. Might go just to find out why they aren’t now the Head of AI (via Head of VR and Head of Crypto roles)

I was waiting in Sbux this morning and a older dude dressed like a tech exec mentioned AI to the person he was meeting with and said "I don't want us to be left behind." I get it. I'm an idiot tech executive too and that can be a valid fear. But we have full-on herd mentality right now.

It's been ... interesting to watch from the perspective of counsel. So few people actually understand it

Damn I am almost sad I gave up the I'm a rouge AI bit I was doing early on xhitter.

I have had TWO different medical professionals, people with hospital jobs wearing scrubs, tell me -THIS MONTH- AI was going to revolutionize health care. One of those suggested my hearing loss was permanent, but good news, “AI will allow for implants that fix it.” This appointment cost actual money.

"I don't want to be the only company that doesn't have a glue-based recipe for pizza, damn it!"

Have heard this in my field of employee benefits also. I think people have lost their minds frankly.

There's a real (and dangerous) disconnect between the way AI is marketed to people and what it's actually good for. I saw a post on Reddit today from someone complaining that ChatGPT couldn't reliably sort a list of dated items. Why do you need ChatGPT to do that? Excel is still a thing.

Because a good chunk of the white collar work force is too dumb to sort.

I think it's more a matter of "when all you have is a hammer..." situation. Spend three minutes on LinkedIn and you'd get the impression that ChatGPT can shine your shoes, bring you coffee and walk your dog for you. It's like any other tool. Helpful, if used correctly and dangerous if not.

My dept c-suite told us we’re “approved” to use copilot AI, in a tone indicating executive leadership has no idea what the business application actually is.

I think it is similar to why Truth Social has value as a company. It doesn't, it should be valued in pennies, but what if Trump wins and then starts feeding it government money? Same with AI. It should be valued in pennies, but what if it is worth a trillion dollars because someone figures it out?

For basically everyone but companies such as Microsoft, it is an absolutely bad bet. But if Microsoft, a 3 trillion dollar company, makes say a $50 billion bet on the roulette wheel, what's the worst that can happen?

Truth Social's a special case. If Trump loses, it's toast. If Trump wins, he'll pressure companies to advertise on it, as well as scamming subscribers.

bsky.app/profile/dmnd...

The thing about a bubble is that you can’t not participate. The best you can do is mitigate your exposure and plan for the post-bubble fallout. See: AI. But also the dotcom/telecom buildout.

I think it's genuinely hilarious that execs of firms that aren't even tech companies going all in on AI have zero idea how much their buzzword bingo technobabble makes them look like idiots We have had multiple presentations about AI in my office and none could actually state any benefit, just hype

Always does.

I think we're already post-peak, tbh. Hopefully it fizzles and fades rather than explodes

Privatize gains, socialize losses.

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