It’s not the best of times to invest in artificial intelligence plays: those are sentiments echoed by Google chief evangelist Vint Cerf. The remarks come amid a heightened push by business executives and investors to ink deals around Artificial Intelligence in the aftermath of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT sending shockwaves.
Cerf AI Warning
According to Cerf, there is still a big gap between what most AI tools claim to do and what they do. According to the Google executive, the discrepancies mean a lot needs to be done for the technology to make any economic sense and thus be worth investing in.
Cerf is against investing in Artificial Intelligence plays just because the technology is cool. Additionally, he has warned executives against selling the technology to investors just because they stand to benefit from it. According to the Google executive, it is still early to predict what will happen with the technology.
Growing AI Investments
The remarks come amid a heightened focus on tech giants and startups looking to revolutionize various sectors with Artificial Intelligence. Focus has been on Microsoft amid the growing debate that ChatGPT has the potential to disrupt the search paradigm by eating into Google’s monopoly.
Microsoft has already invested $10 billion in OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot ChatGPT. The software giant has already asserted plans to integrate ChatGPT into its search engine Bing as it looks to take on Google, which has dominated the sector. Reports indicate that ChatGPT has reached over 100 million monthly active users since its launch. It is one of the fastest-growing consumer applications.
Likewise, not wanting to be left behind, Google has also unveiled Bard, which claims to possess the same capabilities as ChatGPT. Meta Platforms is another tech giant working on Artificial Intelligence tools, looking to stay competitive in the conversational space.
Nevertheless, it is the admission of Cerf that the AI tools don’t always work as they should that should send shockwaves in the sector. Alphabet chairman John Hennessy has also echoed similar sentiments reiterating that Artificial Intelligence systems are still far from being useful.
AI Stock Hits and Misses
Amid the warnings, Artificial intelligence stocks remain hot topics on Wall Street, with stocks like software firm C3.ai and analytics firm BigBear.ai more than doubling in value in recent weeks. The explosive moves come amid expectations that the two companies are well poised to be the biggest beneficiaries amid increased focus and adoption of the revolutionary technology. In addition, NVIDIA is another stock that is up by more than 50% for the year amid expectations that it will be the chief supplier of chips needed to power Artificial Intelligence technology.
Alphabet is one of the few companies that has unveiled a string of AI features but struggled to post significant gains in the market. Its underperformance stems from growing concerns that Microsoft integrating ChatGPT into its search engine tool will eat into its market share.
BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income Rick Rieder believes the size of the AI market opportunity and sound fundamentals justifies the stocks’ explosive run. Unlike the meme stock, most companies in the Artificial Intelligence space have solid fundamentals thanks to their innovative stand.