Former Facebook Exec Warns AI Industry Is Entirely Built on "Vibes"

"The deluge of speculative tech investments unleashed by artificial intelligence is unparalleled in history. Never before has a technology which promises so much - but currentlydoes so little - managed to capture enough funding to threaten the US economy should it fail. With that kind of cash on the line, one would assume thattech startups have done their homework on the complicated reality of AI development before courting untold millions of dollars from overzealous investors - that's sort of their job, after all."

"But according to Facebook's former head of design turned tech entrepreneur Julie Zhuo, the hottest AI companies on the market are getting by on "good instincts and good vibes" alone. In a recent interview with podcast host Lenny Rachitsky that was spotted by Business Insider, the tech industry veteran laid out the remarkable reality of the recent explosion in AI investment: tech companies are growing fast, with no interest in understanding why. "I don't think a lot of the fast-growing companies are using data well at this point," Zhuo explained. "And, the main reason why is because, traditionally, things just don't grow that fast.""

""Today we see companies that are growing insane," the former Facebook exec continued, "and they're still about ten people, or two people, or however many people, but they've got hundreds of millions [in revenue], and hundreds of millions of users, and they don't actually have all of that infrastructure... to be able to do that data analysis.""

Artificial intelligence has triggered an unprecedented wave of speculative investment, channeling massive capital into startups with limited current capabilities. Many fast-growing AI companies rely on instincts, hype, and surface-level metrics rather than rigorous data practices or scalable infrastructure. Explosive user and revenue growth has outpaced internal capabilities, leaving small teams unable to perform necessary data analysis or build operational systems. If venture capital inflows slow, businesses lacking robust analytics and engineering foundations face heightened risk of collapse. The mismatch between funding and operational readiness creates systemic economic vulnerability centered on AI firms built more on momentum than durable processes.

Read at Futurism