The ‘AI is inevitable’ trap

by David Pierce

Apr 17, 2026, 1:24 PM UTC

In the latest sign of AI silly season, Allbirds, the shoe company, told the world it was now an AI company and briefly managed to septuple its stock price. The Newbird AI story is really just one of a bunch of things this week that made us wonder: have we reached the peak of AI, or at least a peak of AI?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we look at both the data and the vibes. David and Nilay explore a new study from Stanford that says AI is getting better at lots of things, and yet more and more people want less and less to do with the technology. Other studies suggest that even those who use AI a lot wind up wishing they didn’t have to. In the wake of the awful attacks on Sam Altman, the divide seems bigger than ever between the people saying “AI is coming and you’d better get on board” and the people who’d much rather simply not.

After that, the Hype Desk crew joins the show to talk Coachella and RAMageddon. Then, David and Nilay talk about the result in the Ticketmaster monopoly trial, Microsoft’s response to the MacBook Neo, and the incredible rising price of absolutely everything. Then it’s time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, an update on the Trump Phone, and some other news of the week.

As always, if you have thoughts or questions, we want to hear from you! Call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11 or email us at vergecast@theverge.com. And if you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started: