“A scenario, not a prediction,” was the disclaimer on the viral memo that made the stock market plummet as it opened this week. The 7,000-word essay from analysis firm Citrini Research, titled The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis, envisioned a world in which the rapid adoption of AI leads to mass white-collar layoffs, collapsing consumer spending, the destruction of demand, rising unemployment, and ultimately, economic devastation. The authors—James van Geelen, founder of Citrini Research, and AI entrepreneur Alap Shah—called it “a negative feedback loop with no natural brake.” Think of it as Dante’s 10th circle of hell, one where humanity has ceased to matter, and every soul is forced to watch endless feeds of our own irrelevance.
By the time U.S. stock markets opened on Monday, the essay, which everyone has taken to calling the “Citrini memo,” had rocketed around the internet, climbing to what is now 10 million views on X. And despite the “scenario, not a prediction” caveat, the market started sliding, a loss of some $700 billion in value, almost all of it in the first hour of trading. The Dow index lost 1.7 percent of its value for the day, but the drop was much bigger for a few companies like Mastercard, DoorDash, and the investment giant Blackstone, which seemed to have nothing in common with each other aside from all being mentioned in the Citrini memo.
