Why US companies are investing heavily in AI?

[McLovin1981]

I appreciate the willingness to make a BMB prediction! But I’m going to push back on it. Outside of crypto, blockchain has not yet solved any problem that I’m aware of and I’m not even sure what problems crypto solves, except things like tax evasion and money laundering.

Lots of companies started blockchain pilot projects with big announcements and flashy web pages. Many of those web pages are still around. But they usually didn’t make big announcements when they shut down the pilots.

Blockchain is a distributed immutable ledger. But if you need one of those you already had it before blockchain. If you don’t need it, you don’t need blockchain. Basically, you don’t need blockchain.

Walmart Puts Pricey Blockchain Food Tracking Platform On Ice | PYMNTS.com

[Goofyhoofy]

@albaby1

But nearly all of the manifold other uses for blockchain - the idea that it would supplant nearly everything to become Web 3.0 - have fallen by the wayside.

@JimA759s

This is second or third time someone has mentioned this.

There are lots of examples of new, wow, revolutionary technology that was going to change everything —- and then didn’t. None except AI have engendered the kind of crazy investment we’re seeing here, but Blockchain was probably the next biggest. I remember the news story of some company that simply added “Blockchain” to their name and the stock skyrocketed.

But for other things that were going to make a lasting impact and change the way we live and do things, I offer: Google Glasses. Segway. 3D Printing. Supersonic air transport. Zip drives. Flying cars. NFTs. 3D TV.

Remember Segway? “It will change the way cities are designed.” There was going to be a 3D printer in every home, just like a home computer. How many billions were sunk into supersonic jets? Besides the Concorde, Boeing had an entry, as did Russia. And NFTs? Don’t get me started. That was a flash in the pan, heck at least Zip drives had a moment.

Blockchain has been around for what, almost 20 years? You’d think if it was gonna happen it would have happened already. AI is, at least, percolating into the common realm - not with anything that makes substantial money, mind you, but it is out there. Other than Crypto (about 13% of adults say they have dabbled or invested), blockchain is almost invisible.

I bet if I changed my name to GoofyBlockChain I’d get more recs. I’m thinking about it …

[McLovin1981]

@Goofyhoofy

AI is, at least, percolating into the common realm - not with anything that makes substantial money, mind you, but it is out there.

AI is making lots of money. It is debatable if it is making enough to support its habit though. Google used early AI tools to figure out what was in Youtube videos without telling the machine what to look for. The machine would go “Those furry things look like…aha! Cats! This is a cat video!” without having to tell it what a cat was. Next thing you know we are inundated with cat videos. But now it knows what is in videos without relying on user descriptions. Now the algorithm can give you more and better videos in your feed, which means they can sell more and better ads. Youtube is hot on the heels of Netflix as far as the biggest streaming service. Difference is Youtube doesn’t create any of its own content.

Same with search in general. It can guess what you are probably searching for if you fat finger your input “Did you mean…?”

So there are lots uses that are already being monetized. As a guess, I’d say the generic AI we all now use instead of (or in addition to search) won’t ever make money. Too much competition. But there is a lot under the hood we don’t know about.

[rainphakir]

@Hawkwin

For whom? It appears to be cheaper and faster to transfer funds that way for large institutions instead of wire transfers but I don’t think that will necessarily work at the consumer level. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

Nah. No elaboration.
Again, JMO, blockchain n tokenization will be ubiquitous … Within my lifetime.

The large institutions are bearing the development costs.
Eventually, the tech will be well understood and used by even the smallest users.

Cause it’s cheaper n faster.
No humans needed. (See “smart contracts” for an example.)

I put some cash on it. Enough that if it pans out, I’ll be happy. Not so much that if it flames out, I’ll have to go back to work.

ralph also has a high risk tolerance.

[Goofyhoofy]

@McLovin1981

AI is making lots of money. It is debatable if it is making enough to support its habit though. Google used early AI tools to figure out what was in Youtube videos without telling the machine what to look for. The machine would go “Those furry things look like…aha! Cats! This is a cat video!” without having to tell it what a cat was. Next thing you know we are inundated with cat videos. But now it knows what is in videos without relying on user descriptions. Now the algorithm can give you more and better videos in your feed, which means they can sell more and better ads.

Picking a nit or two: AI may be “involved” here, but it’s not “making money”. Algorithms existed before AI, and they were pretty well targeted. Relying on it to say “Oh, that’s a cat” may be something, but then I bet 99% of the users used a title like “This is my cat”, so not a huge improvement in the data stream, I’ll wager.

@McLovin1981

Youtube is hot on the heels of Netflix as far as the biggest streaming service. Difference is Youtube doesn’t create any of its own content.

True, but then YouTube gives away 55% of its revenue to creators, keeping the other 45% for hosting servers and other back room functions. Netflix has gross margins over 50% and net over 25%, so they’re both pretty good businesses, eh?

@McLovin1981

So there are lots uses that are already being monetized.

Yeah, I wouldn’t clap my hands for this use, it’s tiny incremental at best. I’m waiting for the gigantic, thundering changes that have to come to justify this sort of investment. From the last wave it was Google, Facebook, eBay, and all the Magnificent 7, plus the thousands of other retailers, experts, hobbyists, and businesses (Motley Fool!) that exist only because the internet allowed them to. When AI has a list like this - or even 20 years before as they’re launching - wake me up.

[Leap1]

It is almost all speculation. It is speculation that builds new ideas in the US. It crashes eventually, but not till the groundwork is done.

The new guys get caught up in the bidding and lose a lot of money eventually. That eventually is coming up in the next few months or sooner.

[McLovin1981]

@Goofyhoofy

Picking a nit or two: AI may be “involved” here, but it’s not “making money”. Algorithms existed before AI, and they were pretty well targeted. Relying on it to say “Oh, that’s a cat” may be something, but then I bet 99% of the users used a title like “This is my cat”, so not a huge improvement in the data stream, I’ll wager.

I’m going to push back on this a little bit. Try this: Input “what were the downstream impacts of Google’s cat paper?” into your favorite AI agent. Here is one of the bullet points Claude spit out:

3. Infrastructure Development The Google Brain project that produced this research was so successful that it was graduated back to Google from Google X, with Google Brain eventually paying for the entire cost of Google X Google Brain - Wikipedia.

Sounds like they made a pile of money.