Today’s massive and still-growing investments in AI and its accompanying infrastructure could well pay off like the internet did, following the investment boom of the late 1990s. But, for now, the gains from AI look more muted, and the macro downsides larger, than in the case of the dot-com bubble.

For AI to deliver its promised benefits, it must be designed in the humanist tradition, with people remaining unequivocally in control, and with human dignity always coming first. Systems that can endlessly improve and adopt their own purposes must be avoided at all costs.

Given that Donald Trump’s agenda should concern those who hold capital, many are wondering why there has been so little resistance to his administration from markets and Big Business. Six possible explanations stand out – and none of them bodes well for the long term.

Generative AI models are trained on publicly accessible creative content yet offer little to the artists, journalists, coders, and others who produce it. A levy on AI firms’ revenues could help fund the arts, promote open access, and ensure that human ingenuity doesn’t become collateral damage in the quest for profit.

Amid a confounding mix of hype and genuinely valuable innovation, today’s entrepreneurs, scientists, and other experts betray an abiding belief that technological progress will make us healthier, wealthier, and wiser. But there are strong reasons why we should not bet everything on future world-changing breakthroughs.