The AI boom is good for people who write about AI. Ask Derek Thompson.
Source: Business Insider ·
The AI boom is swallowing the US economy. That extends to people who make a living writing, author Derek Thompson tells me.
From the source
Courtesy of Derek Thompson; BIThe AI boom is swallowing the US economyThat extends to people who make a living writing, says author Derek Thompson: Stories about AI are the most lucrative thing he can produce.Thompson, who writes about a wide range of topics, says he's torn between writing stories he knows his audience wants, vs other topics he cares about.Derek Thompson writes and talks about a lot of things.But some things pay better than others: "Dimes for analysis, dollars for facts, and Benjamins for facts about artificial intelligence," he tells me.Thompson, a longtime Atlantic writer who left to launch his own Substack in 2025, has an avid following — Barack Obama reportedly reads him to stay on top of AI developments.That following also creates an inherent tension: If he only creates work he knows will have a big audience, it squeezes out other subjects he's passionate about, like the way technology affects the media we consume. Or why he thinks Americans should embrace a…