You can’t trade your way through the AI apocalypse

The Economist

3 min read24 Sep 2026, 10:15 PM IST

Summary

Some of the milder downsides of powerful AI are already being priced into markets. Concerns about AI-enabled hacking have helped lift the value of cyber-security stocks like CrowdStrike.

MORE THAN ever, the big questions about artificial intelligence drive the ups and downs of financial markets. The bulls, who think AI will be both transformative and lucrative, stand against the sceptics, who believe the promised returns will never arrive.

But a third sentiment is now coming to the fore for investors: what if AI systems are immensely capable, as the bulls predict, but deeply dangerous? Fears about “misaligned” AI that hacks other systems, enables fraud or misleads human engineers are growing. Researchers in frontier AI labs worry that their tools could help rogue states or terrorist groups build their own bioweapons. Some think the models could result in human extinction, which would take the shine off any future listing. It’s hard to celebrate an initial public offering that leads to a terminal public offing.