The Economist (October 21)
“Two spectres stalk financial markets. One is the fear that surging bond yields will make the rich world’s shaky public finances unsustainable, triggering a nasty fiscal crisis. The other is the worry that the revenues from artificial intelligence needed to keep the data-centre boom going will fail to arrive.” On the upside, it’s unlikely to be both. “If AI stocks collapse, bond yields will fall.”
Tags: AI, Bond yields, Boom, Data centers, Fear, Financial markets, Fiscal crisis, Public finances, Revenues, Rich world, Shaky, Stalk, Stocks, Surging, Triggering, Unsustainable
The Guardian (September 28)
In the U.S., “consumer sentiment has slid sharply in light of today’s stubborn inflation, mixed with slower economic growth, high interest rates and huge economic uncertainty about trade wars and AI.” A University of Michigan poll found that “consumer sentiment fell in September to its second lowest level ever in the poll’s 74-year history. Only this past May was lower.”
Tags: AI, Consumer sentiment, Economic growth, Economic uncertainty, High interest rates, Inflation, Slid, Slower, Stubborn, Trade wars, U.S.
Barron’s (September 24)
“Power availability is a constraint to AI growth.” On Thursday, Oracle “upset the AI apple cart” by seeking to delay payments if a contracted data center “facility doesn’t come online as scheduled in 2028.” The Project Jupiter AI data center in question “had the money, tenants, and AI partners. It didn’t have the permits.” Delays like this send a bearish message: “less revenue for the ones selling equipment to massive data center projects.”
Tags: AI, Bearish, Constraint, Data center, Delay, Growth, Money, Online, Oracle, Partners, Payments, Permits, Power availability, Project Jupiter, Revenue, Tenants
Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“The AI build-out is becoming the biggest economic bet in U.S. history.” Spending on data centers is already “greater than that for the canals, railroads and grid combined—creating jobs and wealth but also boosting inflation.” Between 2025 and 2032, “total investment in data centers and related artificial-intelligence infrastructure is projected to total $10.3 trillion.” As this investment transforms the economy, “it is also creating significant risk, as much of it is built on debt. An abrupt slowdown could ignite shock waves throughout the U.S. economy.”
Tags: $10.3 trillion, 2032, AI, Build-out, Canals, Data centers, Debt, Economic bet, Grid, Inflation, Infrastructure, Investment, Jobs, Railroads, Risk, Slowdown, Spending, U.S., Wealth
The Economist (September 17)
“Two things should make you consider what artificial intelligence could mean for humanity. One is that those working with the technology are warning about it leading to a catastrophe—human extinction, even. The other is how technological innovation is aggravating the destruction of Ukraine. These things offer conflicting lessons for whether AI’s rapid progress can or should be slowed down.”
Tags: AI, Catastrophe, Conflicting lessons, Destruction, Human extinction, Humanity, Technological innovation, Technology, Ukraine, Warning
Barron’s (September 14)
“AI stocks aren’t alone when it comes to being sensitive to interest rates; equities in general tend to be reactive” and they also averse to the “potential chilling effect on demand” of higher rates. Though expectations are that “the Fed will raise rates when the FOMC announces its monetary policy decision,” the resilience of the economy this year provides “a hopeful thought for anyone dreading a rate hike.”
Tags: AI, Averse, Chilling effect, Demand, Dreading, Economy, Equities, Expectations, Fed, FOMC, Hike, Interest rates, Monetary policy, Reactive, Resilience, Sensitive, Stocks
The Guardian (September 11)
“Humanity cannot outsource its survival.” AI must be controlled, but that’s no easy feat. “Keeping people in charge means little if supercomputers determine the evidence, choices and time on which their decisions depend.” Yet we must. “The dangers of AI-enabled pandemics or attacks on nuclear systems are real. Countries need not agree on democracy or trade policy to accept this.”
Tags: AI, Attacks, Choices, Controlled, Dangers, Decisions, Democracy, Evidence, Humanity, Nuclear systems, Outsource, Pandemics, Real, Supercomputers, Survival, Time, Trade policy
Wall Street Journal (September 9)
“A new superpower is about to enter the fray, one that is unknowable and unending and potentially dwarfs the U.S. and China individually or collectively.” Artificial intelligence already poses significant threats, “yet AI’s most consequential advances—starting with recursive self-improvement—are still ahead.” At their upcoming summit, Trump and Xi “need to make AI safety the top priority for the rest of their tenures.”
Tags: Advances, AI, China, Consequential, Priority, Recursive self-improvement, Safety, Summit, Superpower, Threats, Trump, U.S., Unending, Unknowable, Xi
The Guardian (September 1)
“At this point, it should be clear that AI is a choose-your-own-adventure book where every option ends in disaster.” Despite the growing consensus that we need “to slow down, regulate or even put all of this on pause while we wrap our minds around it,” individual nations are “incentivised to run this foolish race,” The EU alone can pause the insanity. “The future of all chip-based technology is wholly dependent on ASML. A straight ban on exports of ASML’s machines would force the global AI industry to in effect tread water, to jog in place.”
Tags: AI, ASML, Ban, Chip-based technology, Consensus, Dependent, Disaster, EU, Foolish race, Future, Incentivised, Insanity, Nations, Pause, Regulate, Slow down
Fortune (August 21)
“For now, at least, Southeast Asian nations are benefiting from the AI boom,” but “economists who study the region are worried that AI’s gains won’t be evenly shared across Asia—and that for Southeast Asia’s economies, which sit on the lower end of the value chain, the boom could be more of a “short-term blip.”
Tags: AI, AI boom, Asia—and Economies, Benefiting, Boom, Economists, Gains, Shared, Short term, Southeast Asia, Value chain
