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The Altman Cometh!
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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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simpsonsshitposting
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I just think they're neat!
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We tend to remember the hits and forget the misses. They said we'd all be plugged into VR and riding around on Segways, too, etc. Those things settled into mature, but minor, technologies, and no doubt genAI will too--but that's not going to generate enough revenue to justify the out of this world valuations of OpenAI, et. al.
One person said we'd all be riding around Segways, which would totally transform transportation. He was predictably wrong.
edit - Wasn't it one person that predicted the new VR world? Who then demonstrated this grand, new technology to demonstrate how Puerto Rico was devastated by hurricane?
I don't have time to dig up the ephemera of the hype cycles that VR has been through over the years, and the thousands of webforum posts proselytizing the unstoppable rise of VR with the same sort dire warnings we hear now about gen AI ("Embrace it or be Left Behind!") but it definitely wasn't just one guy pushing it as the next big thing.
As for the Segway, you can read a brief history here. Short version: it was the beneficiary of TONS of credulous media coverage and evangelist early adopters, but in the end it was beaten to death by cheap scooters and became a joke.
I was referring Zuckerburg as the guy hyping VR. I guess there were many people hyping VR but only him spending billions. Here is an article about his Puerto Rico VR fiasco.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/10/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-slammed-for-puerto-rico-vr-video.html
I was there for the Segway hype and letdown. As soon as details were released inventors were trying to make their own. It did not take long.