The A.I. “Grift Shift” Is Underway

We’ve burned through a copious amount of ‘next big things’ in the last few years — and the latest one is here

Stephen Moore
7 min readMar 6, 2023

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Image: Badly edited by author

Crypto.

NFTs.

Metaverse.

Web3/Web5.

It’s well known that technology moves at breakneck speed, but the last few years have seen the tech industry burn through copious amounts of next “big thing” at record pace. Those trying to cash in on the latest trend — the grifters — are pivoting so fast they must be suffering whiplash.

Well, prepare to pivot again.

The next “big thing” is here: A.I.

But first, a quick recap on the fate of the last few game-changing concepts.

Crypto misses the moon

Fuelled by the pandemic lockdowns and stimulus checks, cryptocurrency endured its biggest bull run yet in late 2021, touching highs of $67,567.

It caused quite a frenzy. Crypto projects popped up everywhere, and crazed investors couldn’t pump their money in fast enough. It’s going to the moon! rejoiced the hodlers and diamond hands.

But it didn’t make it to the moon. The rocket ship barely left orbit before turning back towards…

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Stephen Moore

Writer, editor, part-time furniture maker. Subscribe to Trend Mill for critical takes on our dystopian metaverse hellscape future - https://www.trend-mill.com