'Black Swan' Author Says Crypto Fad Fading Away, Giving Way To This New Succeeding Technology

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, well known for his best-selling book "The Black Swan," hinted on Friday a new craze taking hold among the young adults.

What Happened: The crypto fad found among "fanciful adults who like to play [with] computers in their mothers' basements” is starting to peter out, said Taleb on Twitter. Instead, this young crop of adults is now getting enamored with artificial intelligence, he said.

"You need another infatuation to displace an infatuation," he said.

Cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, have seen a crisis of confidence amid several frauds and bankruptcies, while regulatory crackdowns have stifled their growth. Gone are the days when frenzied adopters claimed that these digital currencies would replace their fiat counterparts due to the former group’s decentralized nature, ease of transaction, speed of transaction and protection against inflation.

Mainstream adoption , which many had hoped would pick up, hasn't materialized.

Cryptos came under selling pressure in 2022 alongside other financial assets and have been seeing only a sporadic recovery.

Taleb is a prominent crypto bear, calling Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) worthless and the blockchain useless.

See Also: Best Artificial Intelligence Stocks

Why It's Important: Taleb, a mathematical statistician, may not be far from the truth when he said AI is now the cynosure of young adults.

Ever since OpenAI announced its ChatGPT chatbot, powered by GPT, a large language model, AI conversations have become more prevalent. People have come to realize the boundless opportunities this technology presents. Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI and integration of the latter's technology into its Bing search and cloud businesses have only served to validate its utility.

The equity market is currently frothy, and analysts have been warning of a AI bubble waiting to burst. Several companies with even the slightest AI connection are seeing their stocks soar, reflecting investors' positive disposition toward the tech. It remains to be seen if AI is just a passing fad or the technology of the future.

Related Link: AI, Big Tech And Blue Chips: These 3 Charts Signal Shift In The Market

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