Pump the Brakes on the AI Hype?
Commentary
The hype, as they say, is real with AI.
Everyone is bullish on the potential created by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its slew of competitors and alternative contenders. When ChatGPT was released late last year, more than 100 million users signed up within two months. Since then, Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company) redoubled efforts to develop its own version called Bard. Shares of chipmaker Nvidia Corp. are up almost 200 percent since Jan. 1 due to the importance of its products to the AI sector.
All of this has created some hyperbolic declarations from experts. Some consider the current AI movement the beginning of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, as important or more impactful than the internet itself. Millions of jobs could be overtaken by AI bots, and many companies investing in this space will be minted while many companies could be wiped out. Professions from Hollywood scriptwriters to corporate lawyers could eventually be replaced by AI applications….