#dot com bubble

A bubble isn’t “the technology isn’t real.” A bubble is money + expectations getting ahead of reality: valuations, spending, and promises outpacing what can be delivered reliably, at scale, and profitably.

So when the bubble “bursts,” what typically dies isn’t the invention. What dies is:

the valuation fantasy

the “this will replace everything by Tuesday” nonsense

the VC-funded clones with no business model

the grift, the vapourware, the “AI-powered toaster” era

If you want the classic comparison: the dot-com bubble burst, and we didn’t lose the internet. We lost a pile of magical thinking — and what survived became infrastructure.

Amazon is the cleanest example. During the dot-com crash, Amazon’s stock got absolutely pulverized (yes, it was that dramatic), and plenty of people assumed it wouldn’t make it. And yet: Amazon kept operating, kept building, and later hit major profitability milestones after the bust.

That’s what bubbles do: not “no more internet,” but no more free money for vibes.

And yes — some companies will die anyway. That’s how busts work. Plenty of AI startups exist because funding was easy, not because the product was durable. When the money gets picky, a bunch of consumer-facing tools (especially the ones running on expensive compute with no clear revenue model) will get shut down, paywalled, or absorbed. That still isn’t “no more AI.” It’s “no more AI companies surviving on investor faith alone.”

So no: “bubble burst” doesn’t mean “no more AI.” It means no more tolerance for hype that can’t pay rent.

What does an AI bubble burst actually look like?

Not a Hollywood explosion.

More like:

Investors start demanding receipts Less “we added AI” marketing. More “show me measurable impact.”

The infrastructure bill becomes the plot AI isn’t just software. It’s data centres, power, chips, supply chains, and operating costs.

Consolidation accelerates Big players with compute and distribution survive. Smaller companies get squeezed or swallowed.

Free tiers shrink and gimmicks die The pointless “AI everywhere” features quietly disappear first. The boring useful stuff survives.

The language shifts Less “revolution.” More “narrow use-cases.” Less prophecy, more product.

Accessibility gets put at risk — again Because it always does when budgets get nervous.

That last one matters, so I’m saying it plainly:

I want the hype bubble to burst. I do not want access to support tools to be treated as collateral damage.

So yes: I want the bubble to burst (if what dies is the hype)

Let me be crystal clear, because the internet loves pretending nuance doesn’t exist:

I’m a regular AI user. And I want the bubble to burst if it means the hype collapses.

Not the tools. Not the assistive uses. Not the ability for disabled people to get support in a world that refuses to build support systems on purpose.

The hype.

Because hype does what it always does:

turns everything into a moral crusade

rewards inflated promises over boring reality

funds a million clones with no business model

convinces normal people AI is either magic or the devil

And the reality check is already happening: plenty of organizations are discovering that “proof-of-concept” is easy, but scaling safely and profitably is hard — especially when data quality, risk controls, and unclear ROI collide.

Here’s the part people keep skipping:

The money problem is the real bubble. A lot of bubble talk boils down to one question:

Who’s paying for this infrastructure — and with what revenue?

Because the future still needs to pay the electric bill.

Collateral damage: accessibility always gets hit first

Now the part that makes me tired in advance:

When hype crashes and budgets tighten, accessibility tools often get treated like “extras.” They get cut first. They get paywalled first. They get deprioritized first.

Disabled people already know this pattern. We’ve lived it.

And yes: we adapt. We jury-rig. We repurpose general tools into survival tools. We build scaffolding out of whatever the world accidentally leaves within reach.

AI assistants fit that pattern perfectly: a general-purpose system becomes access for many people — planning, writing, summarizing, translation, organizing, rehearsing, reducing friction.

But here’s the key point:

“We can adapt” is not a justification for making us collateral damage again.

If you’re anti-AI and you want the bubble to burst: aim at regulation and corporate hype — not at users

If you’re cheering for the “AI bubble” to pop because you’re sick of the hype?

Cool. Same.

But here’s where a lot of people go off the road and straight into a ditch:

They don’t aim their anger at the companies selling fantasies, or the investors funding delusions, or the lack of regulation that lets harms scale.

They aim it at regular users.

At hobbyists. Students. Disabled people. Autistic people. People using a tool to get through a day that wasn’t built for them.

That’s not activism. That’s just punching down with better branding.

If you want the bubble to burst in a way that actually improves things, here’s the target list:

regulate data practices (consent, provenance, privacy — not “trust me bro” datasets)

regulate deployment (where/how AI can be used, especially in high-stakes contexts)

force transparency (claims, limitations, testing standards, reporting)

stop “AI everywhere” coercion (no one should be forced into it to access basic services)

protect accessibility (because it’s always first on the chopping block when the money gets nervous)

If your version of “bursting the bubble” is “make it socially punishable to use a tool,” congratulations: you didn’t fight corporate power. You just made ordinary people easier to bully.

So yeah. Let the bubble pop.

Just don’t mistake “I’m mad at Silicon Valley” for “I’m allowed to target users.”

Because the hype collapsing won’t hurt the billionaires most. It’ll hit workers, consumers, and marginalized people first — like it always does.

The hype can go **** itself. What remains should be treated like infrastructure: stable, accountable, and accessible.

Prometheus.exe

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