Three stories caught my eye today and they all point in the same direction: AI is not slowing down, no matter how you feel about it.
Stanford Says AI Adoption Is Outrunning the Internet
The 2026 Stanford AI Index dropped this week and the headline number is wild. Generative AI hit 53% population adoption in just three years. For context, the personal computer and the internet both took longer to reach that mark.
The report also confirms what most of us already suspected: the top models keep getting better despite all the "AI plateau" talk. The gap between US and Chinese models has shrunk to just 2.7%, with Anthropic's Claude leading the pack but China's Dola-Seed 2.0 right on its heels.
Here is what I think matters most. This is not a tech bubble metric. This is regular people using AI tools in their daily lives. When adoption curves look like this, the companies still sitting on the sidelines are not being cautious. They are falling behind.
TSMC Printed Another Record Quarter on AI Chips
TSMC just posted Q1 profits up 58% year over year, beating analyst estimates again. Their high-performance computing division, which covers AI and 5G chips, now makes up 61% of total revenue.
Meanwhile OpenAI signed a deal to pay Cerebras over $20 billion for server chips, which is double what was originally reported. Cerebras is also gearing up for an IPO that could value them at $35 billion or more.
Follow the money and it tells you everything. The companies building AI are spending at a pace that would be insane if they did not see massive returns on the horizon. TSMC does not post these numbers because of hype. They post them because every major AI lab is fighting for fab capacity and willing to pay whatever it takes.
The Backlash Is Getting Real
On the other end of the spectrum, a 20-year-old from Spring, Texas threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's front gate last Friday. He was arrested an hour later outside OpenAI's headquarters trying to break in with a chair. A Fortune piece this week says anti-AI sentiment is rising and turning physical.
I get the frustration. People are scared about their jobs and their futures. That fear is valid even if the response is not. But throwing firebombs at a CEO's house is not going to slow anything down. The Stanford numbers prove that. The TSMC earnings prove that.
If you are worried about AI replacing your work, the best move is still the same one it has been for two years now. Learn the tools. Use them. Make yourself the person who knows how to get results with AI, not the person pretending it will go away.