The AI winter refers to the collapse in government and industry funding. It came as a result of a lot of hype like expert systems not panning out but it was about the money that dried up. This time “it’s different” but VCs are just as fickle as grant reviewers and executives - that funding could dry up at any moment if one of the big AI companies has a down round or goes bankrupt altogether. I don’t think a second AI winter is likely because of how useful LLMs have proven this time around, but we’re probably going to have a correction sooner or later.
I don’t think the hiring slowdown and AI are related. Some companies are using rhetoric about AI to save face but the collapse in the job market was due to an end to ZIRP.
The down rounds have started for those companies that either haven’t found product market fit, or aren’t in contention on leaderboards. Especially those companies that are a OpenAI wrapper and can be easily replaced by a new, more broadly applicable, foundation model or a new modality model.
I don’t think the hiring slowdown and AI are related. Some companies are using rhetoric about AI to save face but the collapse in the job market was due to an end to ZIRP.