When Allbirds pivoted to AI in April, it felt like a joke from “Silicon Valley” breaking free of the TV: The direct-to-consumer shoe purveyor whose flimsy kicks helped define what we’ll loosely call “Silicon Valley style” had discovered a new trend to chase. The move was right out of the meme stock playbook written by GameStop: Take a troubled public company, latch on to the hottest fad, and reap the rewards of a rising stock price as retail investors pile in.