Generative AI Wave: The Second Phase

AI companies start applying their old, proven ways of making money to AI | Edition #238

From November 2022 until today, we have been watching the generative AI explode, led by the fast and widespread adoption of general-purpose AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

From AI copyright to wrongful death lawsuits, from weak privacy mechanisms to child safety scandals, from the deregulatory wave to the rise of the new AI nationalism, over the past three years, we saw LLMs take over the front pages of tech news and spark global obsession among both haters and lovers.

In early 2025, rumors of an AI bubble started to spread (and are still circulating), and AI companies have been facing growing internal and external pressure to increase profits and prove their market value.

In recent months, the face of the second phase of the generative AI wave has become clearer.

Despite AI CEOs’ ambitious visions of AI leading to the cure for cancer (or all diseases), reality knocked on their doors (meaning anxious investors seeking attractive returns on their investments), and AI companies had to find a quick way to monetize and justify their growing demands for computing power and money.

What would they expectedly do in a situation like that? Apply their old, proven ways of making money to AI: