THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘AI’ – Whatever next?

Why you should expect an AI crash

But not necessarily a financial cataclysm

Could the news be much more dramatic? Artificial-intelligence models keep growing more powerful, faster than almost anyone predicted. Next week Anthropic, a frontier model-maker, is expected to list its shares in what could be the biggest-ever IPO of an AI firm. Yet in some ways the AI boom is looking wobbly. A sex-and-spying scandal is rocking Nvidia, the top chipmaker. America’s Democratic Party, having won the midterms, is raring to go after data centres and Trump-adjacent tech titans. Some fear an almighty tech bust is coming. How worried should the world be?

History offers clues. Plenty of past technologies, from canals and railways to the internet, have brought market euphoria and then despair. Bets on them went wrong even though the underlying technologies proved revolutionary.

South Africans are giving up on Nelson Mandela’s party. Good

The decline of the African National Congress shows that democracy is working

Jensen Huang must go

His should not be the only head to roll

China’s emissions are falling. Thank self-interest

And its technology is helping others fight climate change, too

To triumph in show business, take a lo-fi or hi-fi approach

Skydance is stuck in the dangerous middle ground