Fox host says AI race risks global market crash – and that it’s ‘worth it’ to ‘be on top’

Fox Business host and conservative journalist Charles Payne said Saturday that the monumental investments into artificial intelligence risk sparking a Great Depression-level global market crash, but that it was “worth it” to see the United States come out “on top” and “stay in control.”

“The Second Industrial Revolution where America superseded everyone in the world from the very bottom was driven by railroad investing – guess what that gave us?” Payne said Saturday on Fox Business.

“Four crashes, four panics, the signs of the Great Depression, and it was worth it! It was worth it to supersede the rest of the world, and that's the risk we're taking right now to stay in control, to be on top because we must win this AI race!”

American companies have invested a staggering $364 billion into AI development this year alone, with AI investment making up about a third of the value of the entire stock market. The significant spending in AI has sparked fears that the U.S. economy may be entirely reliant on an AI “bubble,” which, were it to crash, could spark a major recession.

Fears of AI investment sparking a market crash have only been exacerbated by AI companies' inability to demonstrate a path toward profitability, and tech giants selling off large amounts of stock in AI-related tech companies such as Nvidia.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also made a recent remark about the federal government being the “insurer of last resort” for AI companies, hinting that taxpayers might be expected to shoulder the losses should AI companies financially collapse.

Market recessions have an outweighed impact on those with lower incomes, with the overall suicide rate in the United States surging by nearly 23% during the Great Depression. The 2008 financial crisis caused “an estimated 4,884 excess suicides in 2009,” according to a study from the British Medical Journal.

“The fourth industrial revolution is coming like a tidal wave!” Payne continued. “We're talking artificial intelligence, robots, big data, the list goes on. And, it's changing the way we work and create opportunity, this despite gloom and doom predictions.”