Apple and Berkshire Hathaway may have burst the ChatGPT bubble

We’re in the midst of a huge AI technology hype cycle, with ChatGPT at the epicenter.

As with any of the numerous tech hype cycles over the past decade, there’s a period of massive adoption and incredible excitement, in which it seems like nothing can go wrong and nothing can be criticized.

But then, at some point, something happens and then you start to see abandonment as people run away. That’s when you know the hype cycle is actually a bubble, which has just popped.

It’s very difficult to accurately predict a bubble, and even more difficult to pinpoint when it has burst.

Nonetheless, recent statements by Tim Cook, Warren Buffett, and Charlie Munger may have signaled something about to happen in the current AI-driven hype cycle.

Time will tell. Here is what they all had to say.

Tim Cook

These days, anyone prominent in tech is being asked about AI, and Tim Cook was no exception during Apple’s latest investor call.

While acknowledging the significance of AI, Cook offered a muted commitment to AI for Apple’s products going forward. He also sounded a cautionary tone in reference to embracing AI, noting the importance of being “deliberative and thoughtful,” with the need to address several important issues.

Let me be clear that this is in stark contrast to the likes of Google, Microsoft, and other companies with full-throated commitments to AI. (Microsoft is also “showing the money” with a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT and other AI products.)

So in effect, Cook’s reserved message on AI could easily be taken as throwing some shade against the greater momentum of openly adopting it.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger

If Tim Cook offered a coy response regarding AI, the principals of Berkshire Hathaway were considerably more frank when asked for their thoughts on AI (and robotics) during Berkshire’s 2023 annual shareholder meeting.

In short, Buffett and Munger, though acknowledging AI’s incredible capabilities and potential to transform many industries, responded to what they felt was irrational exuberance in regard to AI displacing humans.

“I’m personally skeptical of some of the hype in AI. I think old fashioned intelligence works pretty well,” said Munger.

Buffett agreed, stating that “With AI, it can change everything in the world, except how men think and behave.”

Buffett has questioned the practicality of ChatGPT when given a demonstration of its capabilities by his good friend Bill Gates.

“I think [ChatGPT] is extraordinary, but I don’t know whether it’s beneficial,” Buffet previously remarked.

This is perhaps the very question we’ve all been wondering ourselves, but for some reason never wanting to ask it out loud. Perhaps it’s the fear of being labeled a fearmonger, or an anti-technological outcast.

Buffett is certainly not known for being tech-savvy. But everyone knows he is highly influential and a realist who speaks his mind freely. And anytime he talks, we all listen. VERY closely.

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