I'm not an economics guy or versed in the intricacies of stocks. So, that disclaimer out of the way, one of the things about the 2008 collapse is that there were assets that corresponded to the junk bonds etc that propped up the whole bubble. Houses were a big one, but also companies that made things like automobiles. Even the banks themselves served a purpose in the economy outside of their bubble-related shenanigans. Tangible assets and important roles. The necessity of these things was one of the justifications for the bailout.

AI doesn't really make anything. There is no corresponding real world counterpart to an AI generated thing. It's not like a car or a house or a plot of land or a potato. It exists in the wholly digital realm, suspended on threads of electricity. Oh sure there's server farms, there's electricity costs, there's all the usual externalities you expect which are all real and tangible but there's no tangible product at the end of the conveyer belt. There's just more belt! It's a machine that makes machines that make machines etc etc.

So yes we should all be very suspicious of this entire thing. While the techbros concentrate on how high they can stack the boxes marked "AI" we should be aware that the boxes are all empty. It's actually kinda terrifying for 2 reasons. First, a giant financial collapse sucks to live through and I'd rather not do it again. Second, it is very scary the powers that be allowed all this to happen.