AI is entering bubble territory, says Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu

Sridhar Vembu

Zoho founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu has warned that artificial intelligence could be entering bubble territory, even as some argue that multi-trillion-dollar valuations are justified by potential productivity gains.

“Definitely, there is (a bubble),” Vembu said.

“Some people are arguing it's not because the multi-trillions will be justified by the productivity gains. But why aren't they there already? That's the question, right? For all the investments already made, we must be seeing dramatic gains in at least knowledge work. We are seeing some, but that's not enough to be commensurate with the amount of investment going in," he added.

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On the role of AI in programming, Vembu said he is a fan of AI-based coding and uses it extensively, but emphasized that it augments rather than replaces skilled programmers.

“In many cases, it's getting this what we call the boilerplate code well. But that's also a reflection of the poor state of languages and tooling, rather than only AI doing this dramatically,” he said.
Vembu noted that if programming languages and tools were better, there would be less boilerplate for AI to optimize.

He added that AI can generate routine content, but truly original work still requires human input.

“If you are going to say something very original, you'd better say it yourself. AI can help you come up with those thoughts, maybe refine your thinking, but you still have to write it. So that's the same thing with programming too,” he said.

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