Investing in AI can be a highly lucrative and rewarding endeavor. With the rapid advancements in technology and the increasing demand for AI powered solutions, there are plenty of opportunities for investors to get involved in this field. Whether you’re investing in established tech companies or start-ups that are developing cutting edge AI technologies, the potential for growth and profitability is substantial. However, it's important to be aware of the risks involved in investing in any emerging industry, and do your due diligence before committing funds.
Congrats, you’ve just interacted with a “robot.” Yawn. The 86-word first paragraph was generated by Chat GPT. I prompted the “AI” for 100 words on investing in AI, but the remaining sentence of the exactly 100-word reply was redundant. These robots, they talk so much.
By now, everyone has heard about the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, or generative AI, being made available for free online. These apps are mostly in the research or “beta” phase, and have mainly been made public to show off the advancements in this technology which is based on sets of algorithms capable of generating context such as seemingly “organic” text, images and audio from user prompts. Developers claim these machines learn on special networks designed to harness content available on the internet, which is essentially the universe of content, to improve the way they interact with humans over time.
The recent acceleration in the development of this technology has elicited excitement as well as warnings from high profile visionary leaders like Elon Musk, as the prospect for computers that can learn represent both the culmination of human ingenuity as well as the largest potential threat humanity has ever encountered. Let’s call me skeptical on both counts.
Now, don’t get me wrong. On the second count, as you know, I’m a sci-fi fanatic and have watched pretty much every movie involving AI. "The Matrix," "The Terminator," "Avengers Ultron," "2001," and many others. Let’s face it, this never ends well, but then again, movies about benign Chatbot apps don’t really sell at the box office. It’s quite possible Mr. Musk is seeing something I’m not, and maybe artificial intelligence will ultimately challenge humanity for dominance of the Earth, but based on where the technology stands today, it’s not something I’m going to lose sleep over during the 40-50 years I hopefully have left on the planet.
On the human ingenuity claim, I also remain a bit skeptical. I’ve played with Chat GPT 4 now for a couple sessions. If this app represents artificial intelligence, then the intelligence it manifests is fairly simple and to me just reeks of the human programmers behind the curtain. Chat GPT talks a lot, but it says very little, and I have found the bot doesn’t just lack curiosity, it’s completely devoid of curiosity. To me, the most interesting and important knowledge in life, is that found just outside of current consensus. Consensus which so often proves to be wrong over time. Chat GPT comes off more like a group-think generator, than an independent thinker, or said simply, it’s a bit boring.
I can hear the objectors now. “But, Marc, think about the internet and how much that has evolved since its early days.” This is true, and also somewhat untrue. Certainly in 1995, it would have been difficult to envision smart phones and Tik Tok, but in the end isn’t the internet still trying to do what it set up to do in the beginning, which is basically sell us stuff, entertain us and connect us to each other? Sure, it does these things better now than it did in 1995, but does it really do anything different, does it really do anything new?
Like the internet, generative AI will certainly change some of the ways we live; I’m just not sure it will change the human experience, for better or for worse. From an investment point of view am I interested in the technology? Absolutely, it is likely to be monetized profitably in many, many ways.
Unlike the proto-internet, however, which could have been harnessed by any teenager who learned how to code a website, AI is incredibly expensive to develop and maintain, and so I’m not sure it represents the same level of raw entrepreneurial potential as the early internet.
My early skepticism could very likely be wrong, and I will be watching this technology closely. Because unlike the chat bots that seem only capable of asking “if, then” I can still ask “why,” and until that changes I will view AI as more of a curiosity.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Stock investing includes risks, including fluctuating prices and loss of principal. No investment strategy can guarantee a profit or preserve against loss. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. This material may contain forward looking statements; there are no guarantees that these outcomes will come to pass.
Marc Ruiz is a wealth advisor and partner with Oak Partners and registered representative of LPL Financial. Contact Marc at marc.ruiz@oakpartners.com. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC.
