By bizn_fun 
Plus there is another looming factor that may well explain why so many in Silicon Valley – and beyond – are blind to, or perhaps choosing not to, acknowledge this risk, and pushing on regardless.
That is, the attraction of the glittering prize at the end: achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).
This is the point at which machines match human intelligence, something many believe is within reach. Or beyond that, reaching artificial super-intelligence (ASI), the point at which machines surpass our intelligence.
But I was also told something else that was thought-provoking by a Silicon Valley figure – that it doesn’t matter whether there really is a bubble or if it bursts. Step back and what is going on in the bigger picture is a global battle for AI supremacy, with the US against China taking centre stage.
And while Beijing funds these developments centrally, in the US it is a messy but productive free market free for all, which means trial and error on an epic scale.
For now, the US has superiority in silicon over China – companies like Nvidia with their GPUs and Google with their TPUs can afford to accelerate into the storm.
Others will surely fail, and spectacularly so, affecting markets, consumer sentiment and the world economy. The physical footprint left behind, however, containing sheer computing firepower for the deployment of mass AI technologies, will inevitably shape our economy and could well also shape how we work and learn – and who dominates the world for the rest of the 21st Century.