Technology & AI risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if a top AI lab is caught training on benchmark test sets?

A top lab caught training on eval sets collapses trust in leaderboard-driven valuations, so the 'benchmark = capability = revenue' chain that underwrites AI multiples breaks — NVDA/AVGO/memory and semis derate on demand-confidence, with crypto beta following. Rhymes with the Jan-2025 DeepSeek selloff, where a re-think of AI-demand assumptions hit the chip complex hard. Forward angle: contamination undermines how the market underwrites the whole sector, so the derating is broader and stickier than a single guidance miss — ai_capex -0.7 captures the confidence hit.

17%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — the market's odds
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Anchored to measured history 17% · 90% range 5–30% · 40 dated precedents behind it — a wider range means thinner evidence

Every number ships with its receipt — the odds, the range, the precedents, and a public grade at Reality Check. The statistical machinery that produces it is proprietary.

The butterfly cascade

How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.

Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving

Our model's odds (electric blue) over time vs the market's (Polymarket, amber), from the past toward the 6–18 months horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. Loading the probability audit trail…

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What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. A top lab is caught training on eval sets, collapsing trust in leaderboard-driven valuations. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — AI capex ▼ · Risk appetite ▼ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Market odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-08-13.