I think a more apt analogy is that it’s like claiming that most web businesses are unprofitable in 1999.
Bleeding obvious in retrospect, controversial at the time.
It depends on what you mean by failure. Economists tried to measure the gains in productivity from the rollout of computing, Internet, etc, across the economy, and couldn't actually find any.
Many did. This Apollo "economist" would have fitted right in.
>This is like claiming that the web is a failure in 2001.
AI will finish what the web and social media started I guess.