This 'utter failure' from Trump could 'stun the world' in 2026: researcher

President Donald Trump has bet big on an agenda to expand artificial intelligence investment in the United States — but this year, some analysts think it could come back to haunt him, as a long-suspected AI investment bubble bursts and the public turns against the technology for its increasingly apparent downsides.

That's the prediction from AI researcher Gary Marcus, which was included in a Politico Magazine piece that laid out 15 potential "black swan events" that could shape the coming year and "stun the world."

"By the end of 2026, President Trump will have begun to distance himself from the aggressively pro-AI industry policies that characterized his AI strategy in 2025," wrote retired New York University professor and AI entrepreneur Gary Marcus. "The giant AI infrastructure plays (like Project Stargate) that he championed after his inauguration will look like an unprofitable and underused mistake. So will his utter failure to meaningfully regulate AI, against the will of voters and political leaders both left and right."

"As a result, Trump will, rightly, take heat for every downside from AI (from deepfakes to chatbot-induced delusions and suicides to massive AI-induced cyberattacks)," wrote Marcus. "Public backlash against data centers, rising energy prices and rapacious AI companies will grow. AI stocks may tank. Generative AI, once Silicon Valley’s golden child, will start to look like a fad, a solution in search of a problem with economics that don’t add up."

And when this happens, he concluded, "Trump will bolt for the door. 'Coffee chatbot, we hardly knew ye,' Trump will be overheard to say."

Already there are signs America is headed in that direction. Polling shows intense public skepticism of AI expansion, with protests popping up around the country against the construction of AI data centers. Meanwhile, as Trump has attempted to curtail state regulation of AI, members of his own party, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have pushed back.