The term “AI bubble” has become increasingly common on Wall Street and financial news channels. With key AI stocks like Nvidia rising rapidly, a growing number of analysts are asking whether this is a boom in the making or just another speculative bubble.

In stock market terms, a “bubble” occurs when the price of an asset rises above its actual value. “A bubble is when investors get excited about an investment opportunity and start to put large amounts of money into it, increasing its demand and driving up the price of the investment,” explained economics teacher Phillip George. This rise is fueled by excitement, speculation and the belief that prices will continue to rise. Bubbles follow a predictable pattern: exponential growth, rapid investment and a sudden decline in value.

When markets hit the point when expectations can’t be sustained, a sharp correction or full-scale collapse occurs. Economists point to historical examples like the Dutch Tulip mania, the Dot-Com craze and the housing market collapse in 2008.

Signs of strain are already appearing. AI-linked stocks show sudden volatility even after strong earnings as investors start to question the sustainability of profitability. Some major firms are financing their AI expansion through large amounts of debt which raises concerns about long-term financial stability.

Experts like Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio believe the market is definitely in bubble territory. Though he stresses that investors should not panic-sell solely on current valuations. Others like Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai caution that the AI craze contains “elements of irrationality” and no tech company would be safe from a fallout, including Google, if the AI bubble bursts.

The 2008 Financial Crisis is a parallel drawn when considering the effects of a bubble burst. The collapse was a result of overconfidence in models that turned out to be flawed. The rapid, debt-driven expansion around AI today shares uncomfortable features with pre-crisis behavior: high borrowing, aggressive speculation and a widespread belief that new technology has infinite potential.

A bursting bubble wouldn’t just hit investors. It could produce ripple effects across lending, consumer spending and tech employment. While there were many that were affected by the financial crisis, there were also many that weren’t “I wasn’t really affected. Teaching was a stable profession once you were in, and my husband, a farmer, got subsidies. I know a lot of other people were affected though,” said gym teacher Megan Musal.

In areas where data center development has significantly affected local economies, many people may suffer. “I entered the workforce shortly after the Great Recession, which made it slightly more difficult to find a teaching job as states slashed their education budgets to make up for the lack of revenue during the Great Recession,” added George, displaying past consequences. Yet, like the Dot-Com crash, the AI bubble could pave the way for further development, like the cloud networks and research that came from the Dot-Com craze.

The question investors need to grapple with right now is not just if the bubble will pop, but rather what will remain when it does.

Snapchat’s recent generative AI update allows users’ content to be displayed publicly. This includes faces, voices, videos, photos and text. This content will be charred on chat screens, stories, or the AI snaps in your memories.

This feature’s purpose is to train generative AI. Snapchat is aiming to improve the quality and safety of AI for its users. This is why AI uses photos, videos, faces, voices and text. “It makes me feel uncomfortable to know that my face or voice is being used by AI or displayed online for others to see,” said senior Isabella Yarbrough.

When the feature was released, it was automatically turned on with no prior announcement informing users of the addition. If users are not aware of this feature, their content could be displayed online for anyone to see.

Even though users can turn off the public content sharing feature for the AI, they may not know about the feature. “I didn’t know this was a feature until I saw a video about it on TikTok,” said senior Isabella Yarbrough. Other people could be in similar situations, not knowing about the feature.

Snapchat is targeted towards a younger audience: preteens, teens and young adults. A feature that automatically uses their content without their notice makes it dangerous. The threat of Snapchat AI is further enhanced as users are unable to remove the “my AI” chatbot from their accounts; they can only unpin it from your chat feed.

However, there are some benefits from AI. Students are able to use AI to help them better understand their schoolwork. “I like using AI to help me study for math because it gives me step-by-step solutions to solve the problems,” said PV senior Jace Rice.

Even though there are benefits from AI, it is important to understand the risk it presents to users’ privacy. If Snapchat is going to have a feature that allows AI to use and share users’ content, the app should alert all users before enabling the feature. AI should be able to be improved without users’content being shared. If AI does require users’ content to improve then users should be alerted.

Atlas is a new OpenAI web browser similar to Chrome or Safari; however, all of the searches are powered or aided by AI.

The AI browser has a unique ability where ChatGPT scans the screen at all times to assist in daily tasks and work. This can be useful to many, as they do not need to go to a specific website to get help, as the AI can do the work directly. The agent mode allows the AI to carry out tasks in the browser window for the user directly.

The ability to see and scan the screens of users is a major privacy concern, as the AI can scan sensitive information and store it in its database. This leads to a large amount of sensitive information spreading through the database. “I have heard about Atlas, and I definitely do not want it stalking my personal information as that is extremely unethical. The lack of governmental supervision on this is concerning,” said senior Ammar Bazaraa. Many people are worried the information gathered from Atlas will be used by companies and not stored safely.

Another concern with the AI-powered web browser is surveillance. With an AI scanning the user’s screen, anything searched by the user will be tracked, and the AI can flag and send certain private information to third parties.

The AI does not operate entirely like a normal search engine. Instead of someone asking a singular question and getting a singular response, the AI can ask follow-up questions to clarify information. This can be a useful feature to get more precise information. However, that can allow the AI to adapt to the personalities of its users and use well-established search algorithms to target users’ vulnerabilities.

The vulnerabilities that Atlas can induce is an extreme concern for its users. “Although it may have its uses, the conversational tone of it makes it dangerous for users as they can get trapped into accidentally revealing sensitive information,” said Bazaraa. Many users may never want to use Atlas due to these dangers.

The AI abilities of Atlas are very limited as of right now which is why many find it significantly worse than just using google or safari, however, it can still be useful for some specific scenarios. “AI tools such as Atlas could have a great impact on fields such as computer science where people will not need to switch tabs for coding assistance,” said Senior Grant Cabay. This niche use is practically the only reason people use Atlas currently.

Although Atlas may have a few niche uses, the privacy concerns that come with it make it an overall negative for society. As AI develops over time Atlas may become everyone’s main browser but for now that is not the case.

Since AI’s rapid development, it has seeped into the education system and into classrooms. Its impact, however, is now impacting career paths that students choose to take.

It is predicted that over 90 million jobs will be displaced by the end of 2025. For students, this has raised the question if their field of study or career of choice is safe. “I think it gives and takes, it will take time to see if it endangers jobs as it creates more jobs in technology,” said senior Johann Duetemeyer. “But it also gets rid of jobs with simple tasks that have the potential to be automated.”

Students whose initial majors were going to be in jobs such as clerical work, tech and software development, customer support and marketing fear they are in the most danger. “People look at it in fear because they anticipate that AI will get more advanced soon and take their jobs, no matter the difficulty of the job they are doing,” said senior Thomas Bacon. This fear is influencing many students’ careers as they seek jobs that AI is least likely to replace.

The tasks that AI can possibly take over all share a common theme: repetitiveness and low cognitive requirements. Jobs such as data entry don’t require deep reasoning and follow a pattern with little variation that AI can follow.

Majors of difficult fields are also not left untouched by AI. While artificial intelligence might not take over the job, it will definitely impact how students should prepare for their majors. “The obvious tactical thing is to just get really good at using AI tools,” said OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. “Like when I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was to get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that.

It is true that AI will remove and take over a myriad of jobs; these jobs can now be done at 10x the efficiency and productivity that a human can do. “AI will probably be able to take over monotonous jobs letting companies spend much less money for similar work as they don’t need to pay a living wage to many workers,” said Duetemeyer. Handing these jobs over to AI produces high ROI for companies as they can save money

For students planning their career path, consideration of the field’s future with respect to AI is essential. Students are entering their majors in  light of AI that hasn’t been encountered before by previous generations. Instead of looking at AI as an obstacle, it can be seen as a tool to learn to utilize to complete automated tasks, encourage ideas and create.