I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to state the obvious, but every day we’re getting closer to doom and gloom as a result of continued over-valuation of AI companies that are losing billions of dollars a year with no plan for profitability by the end of the decade. Once they go public, a stock market crash is inevitable, and the only question is how bad will the AI crash be?. (If the trend line across the last 3 — Black Monday, Dot Com Bust, 2008 Financial Crisis — continues, the crash will be catastrophic and might trigger a simultaneous global default that ends modern civilization; but if we managed to learn anything from the past, it will just be Black Monday 2.0, which we’ll recover from in a couple of years.)

However, for the time being, the AI hype-induced economic inflation as a result of ridiculous explanations pulled out of a depth so dark that even a proctologist with a flashlight would have trouble finding the source, is getting worse by the day. It’s to the point where the only way that the current reality can be summed up is that we are living in a world of hallucinations (which is, of course, what Gen-AI is famous for).

So, when the crash happens and the fallout brings the next recession, depression, or global catastrophe, how are you going to get through it? And, more importantly, how can you prepare for it in a manner that will allow you to get through it? The answer now is almost the same as it was 20 years ago when we first discussed The Market Dilemma.

FAITH

But not faith in God, a God, Gods, what you perceive thy God or Gods to be, deities, supernatural beings, faith healers, shamans, or any other religious entity you might care to believe in. And definitely not faith in AI. (Although many of the tech bros are treating it like a God and, in the case of Christian religions, actively violating the second commandment.)

Faith in Humanity.

Twenty years ago, the answer was faith in human created systems designed to prevent, deal with, and correct problems that only work (and catch on) if people believe in them and have faith that things will get better with time. However, now that most systems are being redesigned to put AI at the core (where reliability is coin-flip), systems are not the answer — people are. People who employ good, old fashioned, Human Intelligence (HI!) while it still exists. (After all, if the majority of people in developed economies become dependent on Gen-AI, the cognitive atrophy will degrade our ability to the point that solving even simple problems will be nigh impossible.)

Systems, religion, and societies as a whole all fall apart when people lose faith. Just like the influence of a religion will decline until it eventually disappears if people stop believing in it and cease to make it part of their daily life, the strength of the system will degrade when people stop buying, selling, and participating in the system on a daily basis, and the strength of society as a whole will degrade when people stop believing in each other. Since we know a market crash is coming as a result of too much faith in the AI Hype which has led to overzealous buying, selling, evaluations, and run-ups that are unsustainable and can only lead to a crash, we need to return to our societal roots if we want to get through what is coming.

Not only do we need to return to business-as-usual pre-AI Mania, but we need to double down on Human Intelligence, Human Ingenuity, and Human Empathy. We have built, and rebuilt, societies from before recorded history without advanced tech (and definitely without BS AI — which is the Fastest Freeway to Financial Failure), and if this society is to continue, we must continue to build the foundations without unreliable probabilistic AI that has done more harm than good and use our intelligence to design the right systems and tech to allow for continued progress.

Progress that, as LEO XIV wrote in his Magnifica Humanitas, will require an updated human-centric social doctrine that safeguards humanity that focuses on truth, work, freedom, dignity, and shared responsibility. Respect for, and faith in, each other as we strive for peaceful progress and real justice. (Even though it was written by the Pope, it’s not a religious doctrine. It’s a human doctrine. The first real, significant, human doctrine since Pope Leo XIII published his Encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891.)

This progress will come from those who don’t have, or promote, unrealistic expectations in what they can deliver, in the capability or value of the products and services their organizations offer, or their ability to deliver faster than is reasonable. Slow and steady still wins the race, and those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them (and run in circles). So take it day-by-day, make the best, human-led, decisions you can based on all the information available, and progress in a steadily forward fashion.