In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and innovation, both blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) have captured significant attention.
Let’s think about blockchain for a bit. Blockchain technology has been met with considerable hype, promising revolution across various industries. However, this enthusiasm has not translated into success for most ventures in this space. Research indicates that approximately 95% of blockchain startups fail within a year of operation. Contributing factors include market volatility, regulatory hurdles, and the lack of clear use cases.
A notable example is the collapse of Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency in 2022. In just one week, $45 billion was lost, illustrating the inherent risks associated with blockchain projects.
AI startups are now experiencing their own wave of excitement and investment. However, they too encounter significant challenges. Over 80% of AI projects fail due to issues like insufficient market demand, operational difficulties, and ethical complexities.
Consider this: approximately 42% of AI startups fail because there is insufficient demand for their products or services. Not to mention, many AI ventures struggle with resource mismanagement, inadequate expertise, and scaling difficulties. You also have the additional challenge of navigating the evolving landscape of AI ethics and regulations adds layers of complexity that can impede progress. There’s not exactly decades of history to refer to regarding legal precedent with AI.
A lot of the hype and marketing I see today looks just like what I saw a few years ago, except instead of “blockchain” it says “AI” now. There are consulting firms, integration firms, everything. Is this just a sign the industry is just endless fads with no actual commercial usage?
Bitcoin was hyped as reinventing the world’s economy. Sure, it found a few usages, like replacing Western Union, or also by essentially becoming “digital gold” that people can just acquire and sit on, but last time I looked, VISA/Mastercard and the like were still doing 98% of the world’s commerce. In other words, Bitcoin fell far short of where many of its proponents said it would land years ago. Looking around at all these AI firms, I wonder how many of them will even exist in 3 years.
I was racking my brains for hype that goes further back… before blockchain there was mobile phones / apps getting hyped (although the whole world DOES use a phone, so I guess there’s that) and then before that was web, but I don’t think either of those bubbles were quite as insane as blockchain / AI in terms of “what they promised vs. what we got”.
Self driving cars, social media, 3D printing.
It does seem to get louder and more agressive each cycle, yes. But then again, all media is.
RIGHT! Good call! I almost forgot those NBC segments “Joe goes to the store now, but in the future he’ll simply 3D print a new sofa at home.” Followed by b-roll of misshapen plastic cubes. Needless to say, that didn’t work out. In what I am finding to be a pattern, 3D printing did find some usages here and there, but last time I checked, they’re not in daily use by consumers.
Old man here… The first online bubble was probably the dot.com bubble of the late 90s, when lots of people first went “This internet thing is amazing and we’re all going to make millions!” I remember boo.com being one of the first high-profile crashes, but pretty soon a lot of that first wave of internet retail businesses folded, with notable exceptions like Amazon, of course.
Thats the investor play here. They know most of the hyped companies will end up like AOL or pets.com, but you’ll also have a Google and an Amazon thrown in there which will pay for it all eventually.
End up like AOL and get big enough to buy time Warner and make a lot investors very rich? I feel like your downplaying the success of aol. Last I heard that whatever was left of them in Yahoo was supposedly still making money.