The first half of 2023 has been a thrilling ride for the tech industry -- from Microsoft (MSFT) scrambling to acquire Activision Blizzard (ATVI), to Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla (TSLA) ) CEO Elon Musk is trying to initiate a showdown. However, by far the biggest story is the explosion of interest surrounding generative artificial intelligence.
Companies across business lines are moving in this direction, launching general-purpose AI chatbots that help you plan vacations, AI assistants that organize corporate data, and AI services that capture images and video.
Share prices of companies related to artificial intelligence have seen tremendous growth. Nvidia, which designs chips and software that drive artificial intelligence systems, has been one of the biggest winners, with shares up 176% year-to-date. Enterprise artificial intelligence company C3.ai (AI) is also benefiting from investor interest, with shares up 190% year-to-date.
However, big tech companies are not the only contenders when it comes to artificial intelligence. According to Tracey Gusher, EY's data and analytics leader for the Americas, AI startups are still getting considerable attention from venture capitalists despite a slowdown in overall VC spending.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends a legislative hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) .
"What we've seen is that this year alone, venture capital has increased nearly seven-fold in this space, and that's in a market where venture capital has actually declined by 34 percent," Guscher explained. "The amount of money invested in this is staggering."
Yet the AI boom is not without its detractors, including some experts in the field who argue the technology is too unpredictable and could have dire consequences for everything from jobs to human existence. The frenzy over artificial intelligence has grown to such an extent that President Biden and members of Congress are discussing possible ways to regulate the technology.
How did we get here? Let’s take a look at the developments in the field of artificial intelligence so far.
The AI movement kicked off in November 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT Generator, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. In just two months, the app reached 100 million monthly active users, surpassing TikTok, Instagram and Uber, according to UBS.
Microsoft invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and took the next step with a new version of its Bing search engine and Edge browser powered by OpenAI technology. Microsoft's goal is to lure users away from Google's search engine and Chrome browser. According to the Windows maker, a 1 percent market share in search could bring in roughly $2 billion in revenue.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the news of Bing's integration with ChatGPT during his keynote speech on February 7, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Jason Redmond/AFP)
Microsoft didn't stop there. The company has applied generative artificial intelligence technology to a variety of products, including security solutions, productivity suites and data analytics software. The tech giant also launched Azure AI Studio, which allows customers to build custom AI Copilot applications. Microsoft shares are up 37% this year.
To distance itself from Microsoft, Google launched its Bard AI chatbot a day before Microsoft launched its Bing software. In May, Google announced a series of software updates, including an experimental form of Google Search called Search Generative Experience (SGE), which functions similarly to Microsoft's Bing search engine.
Google is also bringing generative artificial intelligence capabilities to its Workspace productivity suite. Currently, this feature is only available to trusted users. Google shares are up 34% this year.
Facebook-owned Meta, Amazon, and a host of other tech companies have also joined the ranks announcing their generative AI ambitions. Chip companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD ) have also benefited greatly from the AI boom, even though their sales of traditional PC chips have fallen compared with the pandemic.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at Google I/O, the annual developer conference on May 10, 2023. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Nvidia has been in the spotlight due to its dominance in artificial intelligence chips, but AMD's shares have risen 69% in the first half.
Not all news related to general artificial intelligence is positive. In March, several prominent figures in AI, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, signed an open letter to the Future of Life Institute calling for AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 Conduct a 6-month training stop.
In May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis signed another agreement initiated by the Center for AI Safety. The open letter, which states that, as with other disasters such as pandemics, the use of artificial intelligence to reduce the risk of extinction should be a global priority, while also preventing nuclear war.
Altman also testified before Congress to discuss the need to regulate AI to prevent potential societal harm. Meanwhile, President Biden has met with tech CEOs and AI critics to discuss the need to grow the technology responsibly.
Will artificial intelligence continue to be a hot topic on Wall Street and Silicon Valley in the second half of the year? Experts say the chances are very high. That's because, unlike other technologies, AI is a technology with practical applications, improving the efficiency of businesses and improving people's lives more broadly.
"I think it's definitely going to dominate the discussion for the rest of the year and for years to come," Gusher said.
"Organizations need to think about this with a 'is my business ready for generative AI' mindset,"
Businesses that understand how to best implement AI will have a distinct advantage, said Eric Brethenoux, a distinguished vice president analyst at consulting firm Gartner.
“The companies I see making the most use of AI technologies are those that adopt what we call an ‘AI first’ mentality. They don’t use AI in every project, but they ask one The question, 'Can artificial intelligence help here?'.