Very worthwhile half hour video from Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman. AI is on a par with nuclear weapons in its potential to change the world, some people say it’s even more so. Bregman agrees, and comes to some better conclusions than just “stop the world, I want to get off.”
6 thoughts on “The Weekend Wonk: Are We in Denial About AI?”
As a person who worked in the computer industry for more than 40 years (30 as a coder), “I think” A.I. could be really bad if someone was stupid enough to directly connect it to an autonomous weapon system, or financial transaction system (eg. bank, stock exchange, etc). On the flip side, A.I. might change society in greater ways than the Gutenberg Press. Would it be immature of me to mention the Isaac Asimov robot stories I read as a teenager? Could LLMs eventually become as powerful as the fictional Positronic Brain?
How do billionaires make money from AI if no one is buying products/spending money/providing a consumer base? Which is what will happen if job losses crest over the populace like a wave. We have Repubs in the White House for the next 2+ yrs, even if Dems take over the House it merely throws a cog in the works. Decreases the nasty changes, but they won’t have a super majority to override Dear Leader, so it just means stalemate. AI keeps roaring along, joblessness increases, how can this NOT end in financial catastrophe? According to him, we have to create political will and get guardrails in place immediately. Good luck with that. (and that’s not even addressing the water demands of the data centers–price don’t matter when the product don’t exist)
IMHO, this A.I. things looks and smells like the dot-com (dot-con?) bubble of 1999-2000. “I think” the current A.I. wave will result in a lot of lost money when this bubble bursts, but what comes after it will be slower, kinder and gentler.
The ‘left is in denial’ seems like a catchy hook for this video instead of the actual reality. There are plenty on the left warning about AI. His dumping on Bernie Sanders is particularly unjustified, or at least out of date. Sanders just came out with an essay saying practically the same things Bregman is saying: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/opinion/artificial-intelligence-bernie-sanders.html
Trump is leading us on a zero regulation for tech companies, zero compensation to the public path. He’s not in denial?
I’m hesitant on the notion that everyone has to build AI faster and faster to counter the threat of AI, as Bregman is suggesting. It’s like, “we know this is crazy, but let’s be even crazier much more quickly”. But, that seems to be the irreversible path humanity is on. Bregman does raise a good point about how much of a mess Europe’s social welfare system could be in if there are mass layoffs from AI and all the profits are owned by a few American companies. It is a common theme I’m hearing about AI from those very involved in the tech that we’re soon to face a breakdown in our current economic system.
A good video below that unpacks a wrinkle in the AI boom that didn’t exist in previous booms. The AI buildout requires the tech giants to replace their CPUs every 3-4 years if they expect to stay competitive. This is a major expense that never goes away. During the rail boom, once the tracks were laid you were good for 50+ years. Same with the dot-com boom, once the fiber was laid you were good.
A good thing to mention to those who object to wind and solar on the basis of short operational lives—wind turbines’ 25-35 years, solar panels’ 35-60 years. (No operating commercial nuclear reactor in the world is 60, btw.)
As a person who worked in the computer industry for more than 40 years (30 as a coder), “I think” A.I. could be really bad if someone was stupid enough to directly connect it to an autonomous weapon system, or financial transaction system (eg. bank, stock exchange, etc). On the flip side, A.I. might change society in greater ways than the Gutenberg Press. Would it be immature of me to mention the Isaac Asimov robot stories I read as a teenager? Could LLMs eventually become as powerful as the fictional Positronic Brain?
How do billionaires make money from AI if no one is buying products/spending money/providing a consumer base? Which is what will happen if job losses crest over the populace like a wave. We have Repubs in the White House for the next 2+ yrs, even if Dems take over the House it merely throws a cog in the works. Decreases the nasty changes, but they won’t have a super majority to override Dear Leader, so it just means stalemate. AI keeps roaring along, joblessness increases, how can this NOT end in financial catastrophe? According to him, we have to create political will and get guardrails in place immediately. Good luck with that. (and that’s not even addressing the water demands of the data centers–price don’t matter when the product don’t exist)
IMHO, this A.I. things looks and smells like the dot-com (dot-con?) bubble of 1999-2000. “I think” the current A.I. wave will result in a lot of lost money when this bubble bursts, but what comes after it will be slower, kinder and gentler.
The ‘left is in denial’ seems like a catchy hook for this video instead of the actual reality. There are plenty on the left warning about AI. His dumping on Bernie Sanders is particularly unjustified, or at least out of date. Sanders just came out with an essay saying practically the same things Bregman is saying:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/opinion/artificial-intelligence-bernie-sanders.html
Trump is leading us on a zero regulation for tech companies, zero compensation to the public path. He’s not in denial?
I’m hesitant on the notion that everyone has to build AI faster and faster to counter the threat of AI, as Bregman is suggesting. It’s like, “we know this is crazy, but let’s be even crazier much more quickly”. But, that seems to be the irreversible path humanity is on. Bregman does raise a good point about how much of a mess Europe’s social welfare system could be in if there are mass layoffs from AI and all the profits are owned by a few American companies. It is a common theme I’m hearing about AI from those very involved in the tech that we’re soon to face a breakdown in our current economic system.
A good video below that unpacks a wrinkle in the AI boom that didn’t exist in previous booms. The AI buildout requires the tech giants to replace their CPUs every 3-4 years if they expect to stay competitive. This is a major expense that never goes away. During the rail boom, once the tracks were laid you were good for 50+ years. Same with the dot-com boom, once the fiber was laid you were good.
https://youtu.be/oTPSIPp8ieU?si=6TvQ_Kdu7O14J3N4
A good thing to mention to those who object to wind and solar on the basis of short operational lives—wind turbines’ 25-35 years, solar panels’ 35-60 years. (No operating commercial nuclear reactor in the world is 60, btw.)