Is the AI boom about to bust?

The $2.6 trillion spent on artificial intelligence, data centres and advanced chipmaking dwarfs the cost of previous infrastructure megaprojects. Yet AI has become a money pit for tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta, and the tech is failing to hit its stratospheric targets.

Could an AI crash take overinvested economies down with it? In the longer term, whose approach will dominate? Will it be the US's private-led model with tech giants at the top? Or China's tactic of spreading low-cost AI throughout the Global South, with an eye on dominating the future?

Bronwen Maddox is joined by Alex Krasodomski, director of Chatham House's Digital Society Programme; James Kynge, a senior research fellow for China and the World with the Asia-Pacific Programme; and Creon Butler, director of the Global Economy and Finance Programme.

Produced by Podmasters, with thanks to Stephen Farrell and Sara Seth.

Explore Chatham House's latest:

Comment | What the UK should learn from Kimi K3, WAICO and the Hugging Face incident

Comment | What the UK government should do on AI and tech policy

Research paper | Breaking the deadlock on AI governance

Magazine issue | The World Today summer issue

Audio | The Climate Briefing🎧

Audio | Africa Aware🎧

Follow Independent Thinking on your favourite podcast apps.