Investor anxiety about an artificial intelligence bubble is at fever pitch. Fears are growing that a surge in AI investment could lead to a crash similar to the noughties' dotcom bust. 

Artificial intelligence has seen huge investment. Fifty percent of venture dollars were spent on AI startups during the first half of 2025, according to data from CB Insights. And in those six months, funding "exceeded spending for all of last year," said Business Insider. But some investors are "wondering whether large language models are actually powerful enough to develop the long-desired superintelligence," and there's concern that "less experienced investors are getting caught up in the hype." 

Why is there so much concern now? 
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology report found that 95% of companies investing in generative AI have yet to see any financial returns. And given that there has been between $30 billion and $39 billion in enterprise investment in it, the lack of returns is concerning. 

Another reason is a warning from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. "Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes," he said to The Verge. Is AI the "most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes." And some valuations of AI startups are "insane" and "not rational." 

Will the bubble burst? 
It's too early to call a peak in the stock market, but the signs of one are "starting to appear," said UnHerd. Share prices in the data mining and spyware firm Palantir fell by 10% last week, and those in AI chipmaker Nvidia lost more than 3%. Other AI-linked stocks, such as AMD, Arm and Oracle, are also down. 

Is it all gloom and doom? 
Not necessarily. If comparisons to the dotcom bubble are apt, there are likely to be some big losers and some very big winners. Even when the "dotcom bubble burst, there were a handful of fairly obvious winners that eventually came roaring back," said Jim Cramer at CNBC. "If you gave up on Amazon in 2001, you missed the $1.9 trillion boat."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) ongoing "war on woke" has placed crosswalks in the crosshairs as state officials and residents clash over public displays of LGBTQ+ pride. After directing crews to paint over the rainbow-colored crosswalk outside Orlando's Pulse Nightclub, where 49 people were shot to death in 2016, the governor has also ordered the removal of nearly 400 "nonstandard surface markings" to "keep our transportation facilities free and clear of political ideologies," said state Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue on X. In response, communities across Florida have begun engaging in guerrilla graffiti.

Picking fights
The crosswalk issue has "been simmering" since July 1, when Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a memo instructing states to "identify what he called safety improvements," said The Associated Press. In practice, the directive is "clearly an anti-LBGTQ push," Rand Hoch, the founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, said to the AP. 

In the context of DeSantis' other "recent cruelties," the anti-street art effort across Florida is "in one way the most startling," since the governor is "picking fights where there weren't any," said the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board. Just a few years earlier, DeSantis' own Department of Transportation "actively encouraged communities to have street art at their intersections," including a street-art contest for kids. Only now, "all of a sudden, we are told it's bad for safety and consistency."

Multiple communities have complied with the operation "under threat of losing state funding," while others are "digging in their heels, setting up a likely legal fight," said The Guardian. Erasing street art is "bigger than" conveying "'I despise queer people,' which is clearly a part of the MO here," said state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) to the outlet. Instead, it's "trying to control what local governments can and can't do and an effort to essentially target, harass, bully and potentially even eliminate them."

Chalk resistance
In Orlando, "protesters, state lawmakers and local officials have been gathering to recolor-in the crosswalk with chalk" outside the Pulse Nightclub site, said Orlando Weekly. DeSantis insisted at a Tuesday press conference in the city that this "creates safety hazards." Not only could it endanger "people just seeing it," he said, but it could create situations where a driver "may disagree with the message" and be "incentivized to try to, like, peel out or something."

People gather around the scene of a railway wreck in Lisbon, Portugal. The historic Gloria funicular line crashed after it derailed and slammed into a building, killing 16 people and injuring 21 others.
Patricia De Melo Moreira / Getty Images

September brings the start of school, the threat of holidays, and (hopefully) cooler weather. It also means new books. This month's releases include a nonfiction account of the battle between public education and fascism, plus a memoir about the delirious realities of long Covid.

'The Wilderness'
Set in New York and Los Angeles during the 2000s, this novel by Angela Flourney follows five friends through "careers, marriages, big-city lives and motherhood," said People. "I wrote 'The Wilderness' because I had not read a book that looked at how deep friendships become essential to navigating the period of life between your 20s and your 40s," Flournoy said to the outlet. (Sept. 16, $24, Amazon, Mariner Books)

'Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy'
Throughout history, fascist dictators rising to power have followed a game plan that includes banning books and controlling classroom curricula. Author Randi Weingarten has long believed that attacks on public education undermine democracy itself. And with the Trump administration's dismantling of the Department of Education, the topic is more relevant than ever. (Sept. 16, $30, Amazon, Penguin)

'Will There Ever Be Another You'
This book is a fictionalized account of Patricia Lockwood's real-life experience with contracting Covid-19 in March 2020 and losing control of both her mind and her body. "In books about illness, there's this desire for people to believe you, so you use clinical language," Lockwood said to The New Yorker. "I wasn't going to do any of that."(Sept. 23, $26, Amazon, Riverhead)