Warren Buffett Has a Lesson for AI Investors: Don't Ignore History.

Buffett's disastrous airline investment offers a timeless lesson: Revolutionary technology doesn't guarantee investment returns.

AI shares two troubling traits with airlines -- enormous capital requirements and a product that's becoming commoditized.

Investors should focus on companies generating real cash rather than betting on model makers that may never turn a profit.

In 1989, Warren Buffett put $358 million into the preferred stock of an airline called USAir. By the end of 1994, Berkshire Hathaway had written that stake down to $89.5 million, or 25 cents on the dollar.

Not the best move by one of the greatest investors of all time. Indeed, Buffett later said that it was "to [his] shame" that he had "participated in this foolishness" by purchasing the airline's shares.

Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »

OK, that's great, but what does that have to do with artificial intelligence (AI)? I'll tell you.

The debate at the heart of the AI trade , the one largely splitting bulls and bears, is whether AI is truly a revolutionary technology. Will AI fundamentally reshape our world and continue to drive the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) higher?