The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh

Critics of AI can be roughly split in 2 groups:
1 - those who believe that this technology is going to be able to replace all jobs done by humans, and is going to be so smart and powerful that it will pose an existential threat to humanity (so-called criti-hype);
2 - those who claim that AI is a bubble built on unfulfillable promises and over-optimistic investments, and when this bubble bursts, it will do enormous economic damage.

Let's examine the situation with AI, what we know about its fiscal and material aspects, and what the actual dangers of AI are.

A starting point for this conversation will be the article The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh by Cory Doctorow. Here is a small excerpt illustrating his main point:
"I firmly believe the (economic) AI apocalypse is coming. These companies are not profitable. They can’t be profitable. They keep the lights on by soaking up hundreds of billions of dollars in other people’s money and then lighting it on fire. Eventually those other people are going to want to see a return on their investment, and when they don’t get it, they will halt the flow of billions of dollars. Anything that can’t go on forever eventually stops."