As of mid-2026, there are roughly 70,000 AI companies. About half of all global venture capital funding is pouring into pure-play AI startups. The indications are good. Remember that phrase.  It does not mean what you think it means. We’ll come back to that. Right now I want to tell you a Mark Twain story. That will be fun! It’s always worthwhile to revisit Mark Twain’s glorious storytelling. I’m not going to mention AI again until the very end because you’re very smart and you’re going to read this and you won’t need my prompting to think, “Wait a minute, this appears to be a story about…