Ed Zitron on CNBC: GenAI Doesn't Work, and Big Tech Is Out of Hypergrowth Ideas

Ed Zitron went on CNBC and basically lobbed a grenade into the hottest corner of tech, arguing that generative AI — software that creates text, images, and code — doesn’t really deliver on the giant promises and that big tech companies are running low on their next big money-maker. But the real fireworks broke out in the community, where people weren’t just debating AI — they were debating Zitron himself.

One camp said the mood shift is real: we’ve moved from breathless "can this do everything?" hype to the much more grounded question of whether these tools are actually the best option for a job. That was treated like a much-needed reality check after months of Silicon Valley acting like chatbots would replace half of human work by lunch. Others were far less charitable, calling Zitron predictable, repetitive, and allergic to nuance, with one commenter essentially saying listening to him is like hearing the same rant on loop.

And then came the classic internet split-screen: skeptics saying the money being poured into AI looks wildly overblown, while defenders pointed out that the tech is already changing how hundreds of thousands of developers work. Another commenter tossed in a nerdy flex about a company called DeepSeek making AI much more efficient, basically the community’s way of yelling, "Not so fast!" The vibe? AI isn’t dead, but the honeymoon phase absolutely is — and everyone’s fighting over who gets to say "I told you so" first.