Citadel Securities demolishes viral AI doomsday essay, arguing the real ‘Global Intelligence Crisis’ is ignorance of macro fundamentals

Over the past week, a highly speculative piece of financial fiction has gripped Wall Street. Titled “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis,” the viral essay by Citrini Research and Alap Shah paints a catastrophic picture of an economy destroyed by artificial intelligence. Framing itself as a “macro memo from June 2028,” the piece describes a world in which the S&P 500 has plummeted 38%, unemployment has spiked to 10.2%, and the U.S. economy is trapped in a deflationary spiral caused by the mass displacement of white-collar workers.

However, Ken Griffin’s market-making giant Citadel Securities has swiftly dismantled the viral narrative. In a blistering new macro strategy report authored by Frank Flight, Citadel systematically debunks Citrini’s doomsday scenario, using real-time economic data to prove that the so-called intelligence crisis is actually rooted in a profound misunderstanding of macroeconomic fundamentals and technological adoption curves.

Viral ‘doomsday’ narrative

To understand Citadel’s takedown, one must first understand the hysteria Citrini, a macroeconomic analysis research firm founded in 2023 by James van Geelen, att...