El Podcast

E150: Why AI Isn’t the Future We Were Sold – Dr. Jeff Funk Explains

Episode Summary

Dr. Jeffrey Funk, retired tech professor & economist, breaks down the hype and financial fragility behind today’s AI boom. He also explores Gen Z’s job struggles, the decline of higher education, and why solving real problems—not hype—matters most.

Episode Notes

A deep dive with Dr. Jeffrey Funk on AI hype, startup bubbles, Gen Z’s job struggles, and the broken higher education system.

Guest Bio

Dr. Jeffrey Funk is a retired technology economist and former university professor in Japan and Singapore. He specializes in innovation, startup bubbles, and the economic effects of emerging technologies, and is the author of Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles: A Guide to Spotting, Avoiding, and Exploiting Bubbles in Tech.

Topics Discussed

• The hype and financial unsustainability of OpenAI, Anthropic, and cloud providers
• Microsoft and Anthropic’s pricing strategies and looming AI bubble collapse
• Gen Z job market struggles, declining college enrollment, and university failures
• AI “boosters vs. doomers” vs. skeptics on the “edge of the coin”
• AI hype, fraud, and legal risks of “AI washing”
• Why AI fails at coding, medicine, and self-driving cars
• Zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and its role in fueling startup and AI bubbles
• The dead internet theory, bots, and the collapse of online authenticity
• Higher education’s decline, misplaced incentives, and need for reform

Main Points

• AI hype is financially unsustainable—companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are pricing their products below cost, subsidizing massive cloud bills.
• College graduates, especially Gen Z, are struggling in the job market due to declining education quality, reliance on ChatGPT, and employer skepticism.
• The AI “booster vs. doomer” debate misses the point; most real-world applications are limited, overhyped, and decades away from true impact.
• Many supposed “AI breakthroughs” (self-driving cars, AI doctors, coding copilots) hide human intervention or show slower results than advertised.
• Universities focus on publishing papers rather than solving problems, producing entitled graduates unprepared for real-world work.
• The internet itself is degrading, with bots, fake engagement, and algorithm manipulation creating a hollow online experience.
• The future belongs to those who solve problems, not those who hype technology.

Top 3 Quotes

• “Altman wants to talk about how everybody uses it—well, everybody uses it because he’s pricing it below cost.”
• “AI isn’t replacing coders; it’s making them 19% slower because debugging AI’s mistakes takes longer than fixing your own.”
• “Don’t just talk about problems—solve them. If you focus on solving problems, you will succeed, because most people aren’t.”