Pundit
Rodney Brooks
9 receipts • Tracked since Apr 2026
Rodney A. Brooks is a veteran journalist and personal finance columnist focusing on retirement, personal finance, racial wealth disparities, and health issues. His columns currently appear in U.S. News & World Report. He previously served as Deputy Managing Editor/Personal Finance for USA TODAY until his 2015 retirement after 30 years, and is a NABJ Hall of Famer.
Affiliations
No firm affiliations on record.
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9 receipts
2026
2 predictions- Mar 5, 2026Too early to tell.“Actual risks from modern AI. $1.5T in existing investment grade bond debt for AI data centers. Then there is training debt. And no cash flow positive products deployed. The more all in on new AI that a company is, the more risk. Failures will ripple through the economy. www.fool.com/investing/20...”
The author predicts significant economic risks associated with current AI investments, including issues with data center debt, training costs, and a lack of cash flow positive products, which could lead to systemic failures.
- Feb 24, 2026Too early to tell.“In the Boston Globe behind a paywall. As I undertand it a *physicist* derides me as out of touch for not worrying superintelligent AI is going to kill us all. I'm not worried because we are nowhere near close to even human level. But black holes, they worry me! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/24/b...”
Rodney Brooks responds to a physicist's concerns about superintelligent AI, stating he is not worried as human-level AI is far off, and expresses more concern about black holes.
2025
1 prediction- Jan 1, 2025Too early to tell.“Here is a CEO of a humanoid robot company saying that they will be in 10% of US households by 2030. Absolutely no technology (even without the problems above) has ever come close to scaling at that rate.”
This is a critique of another CEO's prediction made in 2025. Brooks is essentially predicting the failure of this 2030 target. It is too early to judge the outcome of the CEO's prediction, and by extension, Brooks' skepticism.
2018
6 predictions- Jan 1, 2018Called it.“There will be no commercially viable passenger carrying systems for hyperloop within that time frame [32 years from 2018].”
Hyperloop One shut down November 2023; Virgin Hyperloop pivoted away from passengers. Brooks looking prescient less than 6 years in.
- Jan 1, 2018Partially right.“A flying car can be purchased by any US resident if they have enough money. NET 2036. There is a real possibility that this will not happen at all by 2050.”
Flying cars are now available for purchase, partially fulfilling the prediction, but they are not yet approved for US residents and require licenses, falling short of being purchasable by 'any US resident' as envisioned.
- Jan 1, 2018Called it.“First driverless 'taxi' service in a major US city, with dedicated pick up and drop off points, and restrictions on weather and time of day. NET 2022.”
Waymo One launched paid driverless service in Phoenix in 2020 with geofence + weather restrictions — landed before his 'no earlier than 2022' floor.
- Jan 1, 2018Called it.“Something new and big that everyone accepts as the new and big thing in AI will [come along] no earlier than 2023, and that the key paper for its success had already been written by before I made my first predictions.”
Large language models (LLMs) became widely accepted as the next big thing in 2023. The key paper "Attention Is All You Need" (on transformers) was published June 2017. Brooks confirmed this in a 2025 update: 'I was lucky on that date.'
- Jan 1, 2018Story still evolving.“Electric car sales in the US make up essentially 100% of the sales. NET 2038.”
The prediction is considered "evolving" because while the target date of 2038 has not yet arrived, current sales figures (8.9% in Q3 2024) and updated assessments by the predictor himself indicate that the 100% target is highly unlikely to be met, with even a more modest 30% by 2027 now "at risk"[1][2].
- Jan 1, 2018Partially right.“Electric cars hit 30% of US car sales. NET 2027.”
As of Q3 2024, US electric vehicle sales reached only 8.9%. Brooks updated on Jan 1, 2025: 'There is no way it can reach 30% in 2027. I was way too optimistic.'