Visitors view a display of artificial intelligence glasses during the 6th China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, on April 13. CHINA DAILY
Whether the artificial intelligence sector in the United States has become a bubble is stirring intense debate, with sharply divided opinions. Pessimists warn that AI is inflating into an unprecedented mega-bubble, potentially 17 times larger than the dot-com bubble of 2000 and four times bigger than the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. But optimists argue that AI technology is redefining economic paradigms and could, over the next decade, drive advances that eclipse those of the past century.
What truly warrants attention is not whether an AI bubble exists, but whether AI has become excessively financialized. An objective assessment of this financialization is more important.
History shows that nearly every cutting-edge technology goes through a phase of capital frenzy — the "bubble" stage — in its early development. This is known as the Perez industrial cycle. A certain degree of exuberance in the initial phase of breakthrough technologies fits the pattern of technological industrialization and is not necessarily harmful.
