Why AI hope and horror both miss the mark
Why AI hope and horror both miss the mark
Publish Date: 2026-06-17 17:00:00
Source Domain: www.theglobeandmail.com
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Servers inside OVHcloud’s data centre in Roubaix, northern France, in April, 2025.SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP/Getty Images
Talk of massive, energy-hungry data centres spreading fast in Alberta and beyond. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s controversial $2-billion plan for AI to juice GDP and job growth. Global tech behemoths slashing Canadian jobs, citing AI efficiency drives. Endless forecasts of exponential productivity gains and hyperbolic profits, leading to predictions of mass unemployment and dwindling natural resources.
With so many conflicting AI narratives swirling, how can you separate fact from science fiction?
First, tune out all hysteria – whether it’s AI advocates’ adulation or pessimists’ prophecies. AI’s future actually remains largely unknown even to supposed “experts.” In November, I told you artificial intelligence hadn’t caused any overall stock market bubble – which is still true. But buying or selling investments based on AI speculation or IPO heat is pure arrogance. With all possibilities overhyped, knowing something others don’t is impossible.
Campbell Clark: Carney wants to speed ahead on AI, but can he take Canadians with him?
Forecasting the future of economies or entire industries based on far-flung (often dystopian) AI theories is folly. Yet many try and will continue to. Speculators predict fast, vast change – often negative. AI is among businesses’ top-10 cited reasons for recent layoffs. Some say fintech Block cut half its jobs this year – including positions in Toronto – to optimize AI. Meta, Amazon and others’ layoffs in Canada and globally stoke similar claims.
Pain is real for those laid off. But economically, doomsayers overreach. Their mistake: thinking innovation destroys but doesn’t also create concurrently. Such thinking permeates history. In the early 1980s, economists warned computers would displace masses of workers. Robots would take over while people sat idle in a societal…
