Dónal and Ciarán return with more "Bubble Watch", reporting on the latest expansion in valuations, hype, and attempts to find new ways to commercialise AI. Among those potential avenues to income, they discuss emerging AI robots, OpenAI's decision to allow AI erotica for adults, and the push to get AI into education - as well as the associated concerns. This last quarterly update for 2025 draws together some themes that you've identified in your submitted comments and questions and tries to end on a little hope amid a lot of anxiety!

Topics in the episode

• The AI Bubble gets bubblier - OpenAI's quarterly loss reports, Sam Altman's angry interviews, and the beginnings of a withdrawal of money from key parts of the AI economy.
• AI hardware in the form of robots like the recent XPENG demo and renewed concerns about labour replacement and military applications.
• OpenAI's hope of monetising via erotica.
• AI disinformation in the Irish Presidential election, as well as related stories in the Netherlands and elsewhere
• The unsuitability of mainstream GenAI tools to educational contexts and recent research on their associated Cognitive Deficit in learning contexts
• Top-down vs Bottom-up reactions and responses to AI in our lives and work

Resources & Links

• The widely circulated images describing the circular investment within AI include this famous example from Bloomberg Reporting
• Recent reporting on the topic is widespread but includes these examples from WSJ, NYT, Ars Technica, Business Insider, etc., etc. 
• MIT NANDA report on 95% of AI integration showing no return on investment
• MIT Media Lab's research on Cognitive Deficit and AI
• Reporting on the XPENG humanoid robot (Euronews)
• Reporting from Ciarán's colleagues at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in a Digital Dispatch on Russian state content surfacing in Chatbot outputs
• More discussion of "LLM Grooming & Data Voids" in this Harvard Kennedy School paper.
• Fact Check reporting from TheJournal on AI videos in the Irish Presidential Election, including the infamous Catherine Connolly withdrawal fake video
• Reporting from Politico on AI Deepfakes in European Elections

You can get in touch with us - [email protected] - where we'd love to hear your questions, comments or suggestions!