There’s been a lot of talk lately about advancements made in artificial intelligence (specifically GPT-3). By all accounts, it looks like another AI revolution is upon us.

Students are having AI do their homework (average grade of C right now, but hey! “C’s get degrees”). Couples are having AI write their wedding thank-you notes, and people everywhere are discovering new and exciting uses for AI to go to work in their lives and businesses.

A synergistic future where people and machines can create incredible things is becoming more real every day, thanks in no small part to the firehose of venture capital that’s pouring back into the space.

It would make sense then, why a pivot from whatever you were doing to an AI startup would be the trendy thing to do. “Go where the money is” is a tenured business principle, after all.

But one needs to ask, “when is it a pivot, and when is it just chasing a bandwagon?” Remember growing up how you learned that just because something is trendy or popular doesn’t make it the right thing to do? Founders should revisit those lessons as they evaluate market opportunities.

There is nothing wrong with building the future, developing AI, or taking risks alongside many others. I’m here for that.

There are, on the other hand, lots of things wrong with chasing bandwagons.

If you’re finding yourself playing “founder,” chasing fleeting venture dollars, or following market hype rather than actually buckling down and building an enduring venture in a domain you care about, you’ve likely hitched yourself to a market bandwagon.

Here’s the train of thought.