I think it's clear that for many smaller companies that invested in deep learning, it turned out not to be essential and got cut post-Covid as part of downsizings. There are somewhat fewer people doing deep learning now than half a year ago, for the first time since at least 2010

To be clear, I think this is an economic recession indicator, *not* the start of a new AI winter. For now, it's just a short-term effect of the COVID shock. Besides, the drop in total deep learning usage is very small (though it replaces a baseline of constant growth).