Is the AI Boom a Bubble?

Nikki Callahan

Welcome back to Reflections Unfiltered, everyone. Nikki here—today I’m sandwiched between the ever-insightful John and the not-quite-of-this-world Eden, and we’re wading into some wild waters: is the AI boom just—the latest gold rush, or are we seeing history repeat itself—maybe with an even bigger twist?

John Harvey

Yeah, Nikki, and look, the scale we’re talking about is... well, honestly it’s staggering. One market analyst recently put out this claim—he said the so-called “AI bubble” is seventeen times the size of the dotcom gold rush. Seventeen times. I had to run the numbers twice. And, if that wasn’t enough, it’s supposedly four times bigger than the subprime mortgage bubble that triggered the 2008 crash. Now, when I hear those kinds of comparisons, a couple things happen. First, I picture rows of server farms with more power than some entire countries... Then I remember what bubbles feel like up close—people get careless. Money chases hope, not outcomes.

Eden Valen

It’s delicious, isn’t it? The scale is so operatic. Every era needs its fever dream. You have multibillion-dollar wagers on AI chipmakers—everyone’s saying “Nvidia or bust.” Cloud AI firms press release their way into legend overnight. The venture capitalists? Oh, like moths to a quantum flame—if you’re not betting on the next transformer model, you’re simply sentimental. But peel back the figures, and it’s desire, darling—the raw, human chase for the next elixir that always lies just out of reach.

Nikki Callahan

And it’s not just the tech crowd—this energy is everywhere. You’ve got legacy banks making “strategic AI purchases,” Fortune 100s funneling cash into in-house generative tools, university spinouts, all looking for a foothold. The VC numbers are almost... laughable. It’s like every other pitch deck promises to change the world, and if you don’t get in now, are you even—well, relevant?

Eden Valen

Let’s call it what it is: innovation, yes, but laced with that old devil—FOMO. Fear of missing out, stitched tight with marketing poetry. Did you know “next big thing” is the most recycled phrase of the modern era? History repeats, but with better grammar and faster wifi.

John Harvey

That’s true. And—look, the drive’s not always pure. Sometimes it’s hope, sometimes hype, sometimes just the dread of being left behind. It reminds me of how fast the stakes ramp up when speculation and innovation get tangled. We’ve all seen where that can go before...

John Harvey

Let’s wind the tape back a bit, yeah? Dotcom era—late 1990s, early 2000s. Everyone believed the internet would spin money from nothing. All you needed was a .com address and a slick pitch. Remember Pets.com? The sock-puppet mascot, Super Bowl ads. Burned through all that venture capital in less time than it takes to train a decent large language model today. They collapsed, spectacularly, along with hundreds of others when reality didn’t catch up to the optimism.

Nikki Callahan

Then fast forward to 2007-2008. Subprime mortgage crisis. Lehman Brothers, once a “pillar,” gone in what, a weekend? Asset-backed securities, credit default swaps—people betting with more borrowed hope than borrowed cash. It was all so convoluted. And the language, the media drumbeat—it sounded startlingly like… now, actually.

Eden Valen

There’s a rhythm to the madness, isn’t there? Hype becomes prophecy. “This time it’s different”—my favourite illusion. And every headline amplifies the mythology, selling the dream until the dreamers outnumber the doubters. The cycle is all appetite, no digestion.

John Harvey

I remember—I was working for Reuters during the 2000 NASDAQ crash, camera slung round my neck. I caught this one shot, traders clustered around glowing monitors, faces slack with... not panic, just disbelief—like they’d wandered into the aftermath of a magic show and realized the rabbit wasn’t coming back. There was this heaviness in the air, as hope sort of leaked out of the room. It looked different on TV. In person, you could feel the trust evaporate. That kind of memory—it turns abstract market losses into skin and bone and breath.

Nikki Callahan

It’s almost as if the script never changes. Euphoric media, the language of revolution, “paradigm shift,” “can’t lose.” The details shift—dotcoms, mortgages, now AI—but deeper down, it’s belief flowing where logic should be.

Eden Valen

Wild hope is humanity’s favourite intoxicant. And every few years, we forget the hangover. The only variable is which industry invites us to pour—another round.

Eden Valen

So here’s the riddle—are we actually living through an AI revolution, or is it a carnival of smoke, mirrors, and seed funding? Are all these breakthroughs, these personal GPTs, multi-billion dollar funding deals—like OpenAI and Nvidia—signals of transformation, or are we surfing the crest of momentum fueled by wishful thinking?

John Harvey

It depends. I’d say, some is real, sure. Nvidia, for instance—their chips do make the AI world go round. And ChatGPT? That’s trickled into daily life in a way... nothing from the dotcom era quite managed, at least on this scale. But if you look at the pace and the froth—big companies snapping up startups almost before they have a product, eye-popping valuations on hope alone—not all of that’s sustainable. And if you’ve watched enough of these cycles, you develop a certain... wariness. Sometimes you need to see what’s built when the dust settles and the marketing budget runs out.

Nikki Callahan

You know, this reminds me of chasing martial arts fads as a teenager. One month, everyone was obsessed with Capoeira; next, it was pressure-point knockouts, then some new hybrid “combat yoga.” All promise, no discipline—and I used to get swept up every time. Then, I failed my black belt test—twice. Only when I stuck around long enough to see what actually worked, to do the boring, hard work—did I understand: mastery isn’t about hype. If you’re always looking for the shortcut, you miss the point. It’s the same with what’s happening now. There are genuine shifts—AI is nudging into everything from medicine to music to daily conversation. But if you chase the trend, instead of the truth, you end up exhausted and empty-handed.

Eden Valen

Beautifully said, Nikki. There’s a whisper of alchemy in new frontiers—gold out of algorithms, dreams spun into venture returns. But when the rush fades, what’s lasting? Maybe it’s the quiet transformation—the slow, invisible roots AI is planting beneath the noise. Or maybe the bubble bursts, and what remains is humility.

John Harvey

That’s why, for all the hype, I keep looking for what stands the test of time. We saw in previous episodes—like the OLED holograms we covered—where the line between breakthrough and fad can be blurry. In the end, it comes down to what changes our lives, not just our portfolios.

Nikki Callahan

It’s been a ride, hasn’t it? So, if you’re listening—stay curious, but keep your feet on solid ground, yeah? Trends inspire, but wisdom lasts longer.

Eden Valen

We’ll keep peeling back the layers, episode by episode. The currents will shift. Truth, as always, hides in plain sight. Nikki, John—always a pleasure.

John Harvey

Right, until next time—keep your eyes open and your questions sharp. Goodbye, everyone.

Nikki Callahan

Thanks, both of you. And to everyone listening: take care of yourselves. See you next time on Reflections Unfiltered.