Is Artificial Intelligence Just Hype or More Than a Fad?

Over the last several years, we’ve heard plenty of talk about artificial intelligence. There’s even debate about whether AI will ever become sentient and decide to destroy humanity. In fact, AI quickly became a significant part of life a few years ago for people who adopted AI assistants like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa.

Generative AI, in particular, has been in the spotlight in the wake of ChatGPT’s launch early this year, which brought the concept to the public. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can now access generative AI. The term describes a type of machine learning that can leverage the data that it scrapes from the web, or that is fed to it in order to generate content. That can range from text and images to videos. However, there are some concerns that the technology could threaten the livelihoods of professional content creators such as writers or graphic designers.

The use cases for AI are growing in number at a rapid pace. However, the question for many investors remains as to whether it’s worth investing in AI or whether it’s better to avoid it as a passing fad.

Other Failed Tech Fads

First, let’s discuss some past tech fads. A key difference between passing fads and life-changing technologies is that fads are short-lived and don’t end up changing anything. For example, Google Glass garnered lots of attention when it was first announced.

In fact, it triggered a full-blown smart-glasses fad, which developed further into Snap’s Spectacles. Ultimately, the hype lacked staying power, especially given the privacy concerns of wearing a pair of glasses capable of recording people without their knowledge or agreement.

Other failed tech fads include Google’s game-streaming device, Stadia, the Amazon Fire Phone and the Windows Phone, MySpace, and Google Plus.