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Hi, I'm Ed Zittron, and this is Better Offline.

Better Offline. Welcome to dot-com week. I hope you enjoyed my chat with Matt Rosoff to kick it off,

and today is the first of a four-part special, but why I think the AI bubble is that much worse than the dot-com bubble.

So for almost five years, I put out a newsletter or article basically every week that addresses

the underlying financial rot at the heart of the tech industry, whether it be the outright

corruption of the crypto industry, the bullshit of the metaverse, or the AI bubble that I won't

shut up about. It's been some of the most challenging work I've ever done. I've been forced to learn

accountancy, economics, and the names of at least 10 different guys I'd gladly see

under a... with a... I'm not an accountant, forensic or otherwise. I'm not a banker or a financial

analyst. I've never worked as a venture capitalist or a hedge fund, or at a hedge fund, I guess that

would be. I'm just the guy with a laptop and a microphone, but I think I've picked up a great deal of

knowledge in the last few years and the clarity of starting from a position of, oh God, what does

that mean, actually allowed me to see things in the way that many haven't, which is why I'm

so utterly horrified when I hear people flippantly say that the AI bubble will work out fine because it's just like the dot-com bubble.

While there are similarities, I need to be clear that I think the AI bubble is far, far worse and the calamity that follows will be far more destructive.

Let's review. The dot-com bubble actually had two elements, the stable, sensible tech companies that

actually made money, and then the likes of Pets.com and Webvan, both ideas that would eventually find

margin positive existence in the form of Tewy and Instagram. I'd also add the telecommunications

companies onto the side of this as well, but technically they weren't making the websites.

...