Andy,
I wouldn’t equate 3D printing and AI. 3D printing is a fairly new technology, as I understand it. Businesses have had some time to figure out what to do with it, but not decades. It is possible that I’m wrong about that. If so, someone please correct me.
AI, on the other hand, has had a decades-long gestation period. I studied AI a little in college in the '70s. Working on Wall Street in the mid- to late-'80s, I looked at it again to see how it might be used in a Wall Street setting. I came away with the impression that the technology wasn’t ready. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the technology wasn’t ready because the raw computational power wasn’t there.
Technology has come a long way since the late '80s. I mean that seriously, of course, but I almost put a smiley face there because it is ridiculous how much technology has advanced since the late '80s.
People have been thinking about what AI can do for many decades. Now, we have reached a point where the technology is able to support it, and we’re seeing some interesting things. Like computers beating the top-ranked Go players. Like autonomous cars. Not everything is perfect yet, of course, but we’ll see both improvement in existing AI applications and a broadened set of AI applications, because someone, somewhere thought up an AI application years ago before the technology was ready, and now they’re training their AI to make the application real.
3D printing may eventually become much more mainstream than it is today. It is my belief that the gestation period has been too short. Thankfully, I never bought into 3D printing. But I have no qualms about investing in today’s AI leaders. I own NVDA, but also many of the software companies who use AI the most (e.g., AMZN, FB, GOOG).
Although I’m a believer in the Internet of Things, I have to admit it is more like 3D printing in its gestation period than AI. With AI, we have a “baby” that’s come to full term. The other two probably still need more womb time.
All of this is just my opinion, of course, except to the extent that AI has been an academic area of study for decades. That’s a fact.
Fool on!
Thanks and best wishes,
TMFDatabaseBob (long: AMZN, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, NVDA)
See my holdings here: http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDatabasebob/info.aspx
Peace on Earth