Revolution
The agricultural, industrial and digital revolutions were paradigm shifts that completely changed how humans live and work. We might be close to the next leap.
Agriculture made humans transition from hunting to farming, and from nomads to settlers. The industrial revolution transformed the hand-made economy into a manufacturing economy. The digital revolution marked the beginning of the Information Age. Now many are betting on artificial intelligence to power the big shift of our time.
AI is the field of computer science developing systems that display features associated with human intelligence. This encompasses much more than the generative AI systems dominating headlines today, like ChatGPT. Impressive though the latest developments are, AI has permeated technology for years, in sub-fields such as machine learning, speech recognition, vision and robotics. It’s become such a widespread part of daily life that half the people who use AI don’t even realise it.
AI’s most revolutionary area might be the one that most mimics the human brain: Deep Learning. Several layers of neural networks are combined for the purpose of continuous learning. $GOOGL’s latest technology has already seen AI outperform human gamers in $ATVI’s Starcraft II and also develop, in mere hours, computer chips that would’ve otherwise taken months to design.
The AI revolution is poised to reinvent entire industries, one by one. While we hope not to see robots taking over humankind like in the movies, they are starting to take over the service industry. Cities are implementing smart technology to patrol public areas. And as we’ve covered recently, people are even starting to date AI personas.
Assistance from $AAPL’s Siri, $IRBT’s Roomba and $AMZN’s Alexa is now common in the household. Like it or not, we’re already co-existing with the machines; give it enough time and their presence will only grow in our society. We may as well try to find out what the investment opportunities could be.
Stella is a markets analyst and writer with almost a decade of investing experience. With a Masters in Accounting from the University of Sydney, she specialises in financial statement analysis and financial modelling. Previously, she worked as an equity analyst at Australian finance start-up, Simply Wall St, where she took charge of the market insights newsletter sent out to over a million subscribers. At Stake, Stella has been key to producing the weekly Wrap articles and social media content.