Reading the media these days, you would be forgiven for thinking the technology, journalism, and investment communities were inadvertently wishing an AI ‘bubble’ into existence. Whether a bubble exists or not remains debatable, but the conversation itself has taken on a life of its own. Every article predicting the collapse of the NASDAQ increases investor nervousness, which leads to another article about the collapse of the NASDAQ, and so the world turns ad infinitum.
Often the most effective insulation against market volatility is for the technology of the day to be ubiquitously woven into the fabric of society, such that it cannot lose value quickly. When there is a disconnect between people’s real-world experiences and the excitement felt on trading floors or in boardrooms, trouble can loom.
We can learn something in this regard from the world’s 89th most populous country: my native Sweden. In the 1990s, the Swedish government introduced a piece of legislation called Hem‑PC‑reformen (the Home‑PC reform), which aimed to put a computer in every house. This move is often credited as the starting gun for subsequent decades of technological progress and “punching above our weight.” This was not a corporate strategic manifesto or shiny new tech tool built by a CEO; it was a countrywide policy for all of us, designed to firmly cement a new technology into our lives.
