Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM designed to come up with a wide variety of responses. He said something that’s been stuck in my head since: “We often say that we’re a self-loathing AI company. We don’t know if we really like what we’re doing.” My reply? “I guess that makes me a self-loathing AI journalist.”

It was a joke! I love my job. But I do not love many of the things the technology I write about has become: warped by hype, steered by zealots, inescapable—and I’m far from alone.

Around the world, a love/hate attitude toward AI is very much the vibe right now. Public sentiment is souring fast, with more people saying AI will have a negative impact than a positive one. At the same time, AI use is skyrocketing.

So why do people hate AI but keep coming back for more? Here’s my theory.

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EmTech Future 2026: when AI meets everything

Last week, EmTech Future 2026 explored some of the biggest questions shaping technology right now: how AI is changing industries, where quantum is heading, what new energy systems could make possible, and how robotics are evolving. It also looked at what happens when these technologies start to converge.

The full program is now available on demand. And today, we’re releasing two sessions exclusively to subscribers: a chat with Google Research’s Yossi Matias on how AI is reshaping biology, infrastructure, manufacturing and science, and a special panel with MIT Technology Review editors that takes you inside our newsroom.

Watch the sessions and access the full EmTech Future 2026 program here.