Ed Zitron on Big Tech, backlash, boom and bust: “AI has taught us that humans are excited to replace humans”

IIf, at some point in the entirely possible future, they make a movie about “how the AI ​​bubble burst,” Ed Zitron will undoubtedly be a main character. He’s the perfect underdog character: the eccentric loner who saw it all coming and screamed from the sidelines that the sky was falling, but no one would listen. Just as Christian Bale portrayed Michael Burry, the investor who predicted the 2008 financial crash, in The Big Short, you can well imagine Robert Pattinson battling Paul Mescal, for example, to portray Zitron, the vibrant, colorful but doggedly detail-oriented Brit who has become one of big tech’s loudest critics.

That’s not to say it’s an AI bubble will inevitably burst, but against a tidal wave of AI boosterism, Zitron’s blunt, brazen skepticism has made him something of a cult figure. His tech newsletter “Where’s Your Ed At” now has more than 80,000 subscribers; his weekly podcast “Better Offline” is well into the top 20 of the tech charts; he is a…