The Second the AI Hype Cycle Actually Kicked In

Does it really feel like information about synthetic intelligence is inescapable? You’re not simply imagining it. Zach Perkel, the Principal and Director of Utilized AI at enterprise AI agency Fractal, tracked the variety of AI-related posts that managed to crack the highest 10 tales on Y Combinator’s Hacker Information, and located that we’re experiencing peak AI (up to now).

Perkel analyzed 24,910 articles and posts that managed to crack the Hacker Information high 10 from January 1st, 2019, to August fifteenth, 2025, to find out simply how a lot momentum the hype prepare has gained. He discovered that curiosity in AI has seemingly 10x-ed from the primary quarter of 2019, when simply 39 AI-related posts managed to crack the checklist. In contrast, the third quarter of 2025, which is simply barely midway by its calendar interval, has already seen 337 bits of AI content material on the high of Hacker Information.

It’s no shock that we’re speaking about AI considerably extra now than we had been in a pre-ChatGPT, pre-AI in every single place world. However what’s a bit surprising is simply how a lot the dialog has accelerated lately.

Per Perkel’s data, an enormous spike in AI curiosity occurred between the fourth quarter of 2022—which encompasses the general public launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022—and the primary quarter of 2023, when dialog in regards to the implications of the software actually began to warmth up. That interval noticed a leap from 89 AI-related tales within the high 10 for This fall 2022 to 174 tales in Q1 2023. However that leap—the one which captures the second we went from the public-facing chatbot not present to being the dominant means by which individuals work together with AI—is the one one that’s bigger than the leap skilled between Q2 2025 and Q3 2025. On condition that we’re not even by this quarter, it’s protected to imagine that this can turn out to be the most important spike in curiosity in AI but.

That’s fascinating, as a result of Hacker Information just isn’t precisely for the uninitiated. It’s not like that viewers is simply waking as much as the accessibility or ramifications of widespread AI instruments. It additionally makes Perkel’s sentiment evaluation of the posts a noteworthy indicator. He discovered that within the A.C. (After ChatGPT) period, no interval has seen a bigger share of detrimental posts about AI than the present quarter, which has seen 42% of posts crucial of the subject.

It additionally occurs to be a brand new peak of a short-term pattern, which has seen the sentiment on AI shift. Within the first quarter of 2025, simply 27% of high Hacker Information posts on AI had been detrimental. That jumped to 36% within the second quarter, which marked the best share on the time since ChatGPT’s introduction in late 2022—solely to get topped once more by the Q3 figures.

There may be nearly actually an AI bubble, although it’s unclear if it’s about to burst (OpenAI is on the verge of a $500 billion valuation). However there positively seems to be an AI vibe shift.