cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/71366855

I won the Pulitzer Prize for History for Lords of Finance, my account of how four central bankers’ decisions triggered the Great Depression. I have just completed 1873, a book on America’s railroad boom of the 1870s — the last time private capital flooded into a transformative new infrastructure technology at a scale comparable to 2%–3% of GDP. That research is why, when I look at the AI buildout today, I am genuinely frightened.

I posted this because I think the AI bubble bursting would significantly affect Europe, too (as well as the current lack of indepence in AI adoption).