It's the eve of big tech earnings, Microsoft, Google,

Beta, Amazon, four of the Magnificent Seven

set to report next week.

We're going to talk the promise versus the economics of AI.

It's Friday, October 20th.

Welcome to the Tech Check Podcast.

I'm Deertroposa.

And I'm Mark Gilbert.

Today, it's all about the forecast.

Looking ahead to next week when we'll get numbers from Microsoft,

alphabet, Meta, and Amazon about what they saw in the third quarter and what they see coming down the

pike in Q40.

So as for much of the year, artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI, still very much

front and center, but Gilbert, it has been an evolution this year. We had the hype and the promise when you

know the Magnificent Seven became the Magnificent Seven largely because of this

hype cycle but second half of the year, these stocks haven't

quite done as well and it's sort of like the cold hard reality of AI economics

has settled in through the first half the year, the hype was a benefit, but there's just

this market shift in the second half where costs and unclear monetization feels like a bit more

of a risk to the margin improvements, which was, you know, really the focus at the end of last year and the start of this year.

Right, and next week we'll get those four, the four that stand to benefit, you know, arguably the most from AI, maybe along with

NVIDIA, but also stand to lose the most if they can't prove to investors that

...