Topic: AI Investing

AI Should Pay Off for Top Stocks–Including Google

AI will be a boon for well-established leaders–and that includes Google

Today, a key area of focus for Alphabet (formerly Google) is artificial intelligence (AI) software that improves the performance of its search services, as well as the efficiency of the Google Ads bidding system.

You can easily see Google investing in AI—the company recently launched a first version of its new AI software called Gemini. It will power Google’s Bard online chatbot/search engine, which competes with the popular ChatGPT service.

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Gemini can recognize and understand text, images, audio, and other data simultaneously. That lets it better understand and answer complex questions.

The software can also create images based on textual descriptions. Despite some problems, such as inaccurate depictions of historical figures, this technology will undoubtedly continue to improve. In fact, it could someday let anyone create long-form videos and movies without actors and cameras.

Another big focus for Alphabet is its cloud-computing service, which lets individuals and businesses manage their databases online and store their files on remote servers. Google Cloud has roughly 11% of the worldwide cloud-computing market, behind leaders Amazon Web Services (31%) and Microsoft’s Azure (24%).

The long-term prospects for cloud computing remain strong, as it lets businesses access more-powerful software at much lower costs than setting up their own networks.

As with its other services, the company is using AI to improve the performance of Google Cloud. For example, its Vertex AI service helps software developers create and train their own AI programs.

Alphabet is also adding more AI services to its Android and Chrome operating systems. For example, Magic Editor uses AI to help users digitally edit and improve their photos. The company typically reserves these advanced features for its own Pixel phones, instead of making them available to other smartphones that run on Android.

The company is in a strong position to keep investing in AI and other growth areas.

Investing in AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) only crossed the fiction-to-news barrier in recent years, after decades as a staple of Arnold Schwarzenegger films, but it’s already influencing the economy and is likely to increase its impact. Many investors are afraid of where it will lead. We feel it could have a huge positive potential.

Media comments on this subject abound, as do surveys.  The average person seems fascinated with AI’s potential for good, but wary of its potential for harm. You might say this resembles the atmosphere a decade or so ago when self-driving cars started appearing in the news.

In both cases, middle-of-the-roaders were in the majority. Extreme types came up with much different outlooks.

Negative observers said self-driving vehicles would lead to an economic collapse because multitudes of drivers of trucks, taxis, buses and so on would lose their jobs.

At the other end of the spectrum, a smaller extreme felt driver-less vehicles would balloon human productivity and expand wealth around the world. After all, people could do valuable work in traffic, just as well as in an office, or use the time for a nap. They looked forward to a day when owning your own car would be a needless extravagance. When you needed a lift, you’d just summon a driver-less limo on your cellphone. A little further along, new homes will be available with or without garages or parking spots. Your self-driver will be able to valet itself to a community parking lot.

Looking a little further still, your car might be able to take itself out for maintenance, service, fuel, or any number of errands. Artificial Intelligence just might speed the arrival of these advances.

However, there’s an even wider opinion spectrum on Artificial Intelligence. Rather than a booming jobless rate, the negative side foresees Armageddon—humans versus machines.

It seems conflicts of interest are playing a role, along with honest differences of opinion, in disputes over Artificial Intelligence. This reminds me of the debate over Y2K.

The Y2K debate showed there is big money in alarmism. Some of the top Y2K promoters used Y2K fears to build a following and boost their incomes from writing, consulting or public speaking. Pessimists worried needlessly about Y2K and made a lot of money. I expect the same reaction to AI.

I’d say your biggest risk from AI is the stock promoters and GRQ (Get Rich Quick) publishers who claim to know about speculative stocks that are sure to pay off.

Our view is that AI will pay off best for well-established companies that put it to constructive use. The market is not yet taking these potential gains into account. Meanwhile, Google investing in AI shows great promise.

What’s your view? Leave a comment below.

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