AI is a bubble, not a revolution. Cory Doctorow explains why

AI is everywhere. Governments are racing to regulate it, companies are pouring hundreds of billions into it, and workers are wondering what it means for their jobs.

But what if the AI revolution isn't inevitable?

Technology commentator and science fiction writer Cory Doctorow joins Global Roaming to argue that today's AI boom looks a lot like a financial bubble, and the world could look very different once it pops.

Despite the massive amounts of money pumped into companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, the question remains whether or not these companies can deliver consistent profit, especially when undercut by Chinese AI models made for a fraction of the price. 

So if these companies collapse, what would that do to a technology that claims to change the face of the earth?

In this conversation with Kylie Morris and Latika Bourke, Cory Doctorow provides an image of what a more equitable AI future might look like, a future in which the AI giants are gone, but the investment into data centres and Large Language Models remain. 

Plus: what Australia's push into AI means for digital sovereignty, and why dependence on foreign technology could become a bigger national challenge than AI itself.