The great software stock meltdown

THE rapid advances in artificial intelligence since the launch of ChatGPT have taken place deep inside the leading artificial intelligence labs, out of sight to most people. By contrast, the stock market lurches that come as investors wake up to the disruptive potential of all this new technology can be all too visible.

The devastation of software stocks over the past month is a case in point. AI agents – software tools that can take actions on behalf of a user – have long been talked about in the AI world. The market ructions are a sign that they may finally be at hand.

The main source of investor angst has been a move by Anthropic and OpenAI to repurpose their code-generating tools as general-purpose agents, capable of carrying out a wide range of actions for non-technical workers.