AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making

What happened

An anonymous blog post from July 18, 2026 went viral on Hacker News (246 points) — describing how companies globally mandate AI adoption without evidence of success, creating a professionally dangerous environment for honest evaluation.

Context and impact

The author describes 18 months of observation with zero successful AI projects — despite massive investments. Managers privately know projects are not working but publicly declare massive productivity gains. It is a prisoner dilemma: a company that stops investing in AI loses competitive position — even if everyone else is faking results.

Details

• Observed AI project success rate over 18 months: 0%
• AI-washing: false claims of AI involvement to make projects appear relevant
• Employees who skeptically evaluate AI initiatives are being fired
• Inflating LLM token utilization through self-prompting to preserve jobs
• Effect: CEOs ask about AI and no one in the room has the courage to answer honestly
• Outcome: resources redirected from genuinely valuable work to zero-value AI projects