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Channels with Peter Kafka

The PR Guy Who Says the AI Boom Is a Bust

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4585 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The AI story is changing fast. A few months ago, it was all promise and inevitability. Now even AI boosters are asking if the numbers make sense. Ed Zitron got there early. He runs a PR firm for a living, which means he’s supposed to help people sell their stories. But he’s become best known for tearing tech’s biggest stories apart. And he’s been pushing at the economics behind the AI boom, via his newsletter and podcast, for some time. We talk about how he built a career out of skepticism, why the media keeps falling for big tech’s favorite stories, and what happens if the AI party ends early. (And yes: I wrote the paragraphs above with an assist from ChatGPT — mostly so I can imagine Zitron fuming when he reads this.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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1:39.0

From the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is channels with Peter Kafka.

1:43.3

That's me.

1:44.0

I'm also the chief correspondent at Business Insider. Today we're talking about two things. First, are we in an AI bubble? Secondarily, can you make money by arguing that we're in an AI bubble? To answer that question, I'm chatting with Ed Zittron, who is either

2:02.2

someone you've never heard of or someone you have very strong feelings about. Zitron has a day job

2:08.1

in PR. He owns his own agency, but for the last several years, he's been making a name for himself

2:13.0

as a tech hype deflator, a voluble one. If you are confused about how those things fit together,

2:20.0

well, that's a lot of what we talk about in this conversation, especially in the second half.

2:25.2

But the first half of our conversation mirrors the conversation lots of people are having these days.

...

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