Is the rise of artificial intelligence a bubble? The short answer is yes — and no. But in the end, it may not matter. AI is here to stay. To understand why, it helps to compare today’s AI boom to the internet bubble of the late 1990s, something many in our region remember well.

Then, as now, hype far outpaced understanding. Venture capital poured into startups riding the Internet wave. Corporate buyers spent heavily on possibilities they barely understood. There were bellwether companies like AOL and infrastructure builders such as MCI WorldCom all promising a new connected world.

The promises were ambitious: software delivered through browsers, media on demand, improved logistics and more. But when the money dried up in 2001, many concluded the “internet bubble had burst.”

A growing nu

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