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\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The amount of money being spent on artificial intelligence is astronomical. Investors have lavished the top tech companies and startups alike with hundreds of billions of dollars \u2014 so much so, in fact, that an estimated 92 percent<\/a> of US GDP growth now comes from AI. If trends continue in 2026, conservative estimates<\/a> peg the spending from just the \u201clargest technology firms\u201d at $550 billion.<\/p>\n With that kind of cash riding on AI, it\u2019s safe to say investors are expecting something big \u2014 like, say, a totally new era of human development<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many economists<\/a>, journalists<\/a>, and venture capitalists<\/a> have argued that the gold at the end of the rainbow is less a pot of riches than the complete automation of all jobs. Basically, the idea goes that whoever\u2019s left holding the bag when the new AI era comes to pass will be god emperor<\/a>, for better or worse.<\/p>\n That idea isn\u2019t lost on publishing magnate Keith Riegert, the CEO of Ulysses Press, who recently told a crowded room of book industry leaders that there are only two AI futures: a hellscape of mass unemployment, or a \u201cscaling plateau triggering economic collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know which ones going to happen,\u201d he said, commenting that a financial catastrophe \u201cis the version of the future that I would prefer.\u201d<\/p>\n Riegert\u2019s brutal assessment came at the Sharjah\u2019s Publishers Conference in the United Arab Emirates, a massive annual meeting which brings over 1,200 representatives from for-profit publishing houses together to discuss the industry. His talk, evidently, was on the gnawing issue of AI.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to use it or get left behind,\u201d the CEO told attendees at his panel. According to industry publication Publishers Weekly<\/a>, Reigert described AI as both \u201ctransformative\u201d and \u201cunsettling,\u201d adding that he\u2019s \u201cnot very happy that AI is here.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Reigert decided to stuff his doubts deep down and go after what really matters in life: profits. He continued to describe the partnership his company made with OpenAI, which includes a mandate that all employees use ChatGPT for \u201cat least an hour daily.\u201d<\/p>\n The publishing CEO even demonstrated the transformative power of AI live on stage by \u2014 we\u2019re not kidding \u2014 creating a book ready to be listed on Amazon in just five minutes. He admitted the book was \u201cterrible,\u201d but listed it on Kindle\u2019s Direct Publishing platform anyway before deleting it, Publishers reported.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as Kara Swisher\u2019s biography was announced, there were half a dozen AI-generated clones that came to market well before publication,\u201d he told conference attendees, seemingly as a positive example of AI\u2019s abilities.<\/p>\n Sure enough, Amazon has become a nightmare of AI-generated books<\/a> and bot farming<\/a> \u2014 a degraded ecosystem this CEO seems happy to roll around in, damn the consequences.<\/p>\n