The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that in financial markets, nothing sells like doom. Guest columnist Jamie McGeever writes, however, that recent fears about the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence have battered stock prices and investor sentiment. If an "AI doom bubble" is growing, perhaps it is time to deflate it. Start with valuations. The steady decline and rotation out of U.S. tech stocks in recent months means that the sector is now trading at almost the same multiples as boring, defensive consumer staples, when comparing 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratios. Using the same valuation metrics, tech's premium over the wider S&P 500 is now the smallest in nearly six years, and on a single-stock basis, retailer Walmart is more expensive than megacaps Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia. This indicates that either current AI fears are excessive, or the previous blind optimism was overdone. It is probably a bit of both. Of course, no one knows how the AI chips will fall. Amid the noise, we do have some actual data about AI's current impact on employment, including one study showing that, so far, AI is simultaneously aiding and replacing workers. Not exactly doom porn.
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