LONDON, July 28 — Cory Doctorow stands at the centre of a growing storm, warning that the artificial intelligence boom is nothing more than a speculative bubble poised to burst. The Canadian-British author, activist and journalist—who coined the term ‘enshittification’ in a 2023 blog post on Boing Boing—sees the current AI frenzy as dangerously disconnected from economic reality.
Doctorow, a former board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation until 2015 and co-founder of the Open Rights Group in 2005, has spent years dissecting how big tech platforms degrade service quality in pursuit of shareholder profits. In his 2022 book Chokepoint Capitalism, co-authored with Rebecca Giblin, he laid out how companies extract monopoly rents.
Now he is turning that same critical lens on artificial intelligence.
The Enshittification of AI
On the ground in the technology sector, the numbers tell a stark story. Global AI startup funding fell to $18.8 billion in 2024, according to CB Insights, down from $46.5 billion in 2022. Yet valuations remain sky-high: OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, reached an $80 billion valuation in 2024 despite projected revenue of only $3.4 billion.
Nvidia, whose chips power much of the AI infrastructure, saw its market capitalisation exceed $2 trillion in 2024. Doctorow argues that once investors realise most AI startups lack sustainable business models, a correction similar to the dot-com crash will occur—possibly within the next 12 to 18 months.
He points to the historic precedent: the NASDAQ Composite rose from under 1,000 to over 5,000 during the dot-com bubble of 1995–2000, then fell 78% from its peak, wiping out $5 trillion in market value. The scene, by nightfall of this speculative cycle, could be one of wreckage. Doctorow’s critique centres on what he calls the ‘enshittification’ of tech platforms—a process where companies prioritise shareholders over users, leading to a gradual decline in quality.
He sees the same pattern playing out in AI, where rapid deployment and hype outpace genuine utility.
A Gathering Storm of Costs
Doctorow’s warnings extend beyond economics. He has flagged the environmental cost of training large AI models, noting that a single training run for GPT-3 emitted approximately 552 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent. With a law degree from the University of Edinburgh and a career writing for outlets including Wired, The Guardian and his own blog, Doctorow brings a mixture of legal rigour and journalistic clarity to the debate.
He has long fought for digital rights. His prediction now places him at odds with Silicon Valley’s prevailing optimism.
By nightfall, as the next earnings reports roll in and investor patience wears thin, the question is whether the AI industry can deliver on its promises before the bubble bursts. Doctorow is betting it cannot—and that the reckoning, when it comes, will be swift.
Sources
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