The inventor and futurist has often said that humanity will experience the Singularlity — merging with artificial intelligence — very soon.
He made that claim in his 2005 book “The Singularity is Near,” and he repeated it in the follow-up book “The Singularity is Nearer.”
Kurzweil predicted nanotechnology and AI will push back against death, telling The New York Times that “by the early 2030s, we won’t die because of aging.”
AI and its promise of a spectacular future has set Wall Street on fire, becoming a major force in the stock market’s recent surge.
Sarah Poncszek, senior wealth strategy associate with UBS Private Wealth, told Fox Business on July 3 that “artificial intelligence is here to stay, and companies are making plans for the future on how to harness this.”
“As an investor you need to think about ‘how can I access this?’ because it’s very possible that AI is not only one of the largest investment beams of the next decade but potentially even our lifetime,” she said. Poncszek added that UBS’s chief investment officer estimated that AI value creation could amount to $1.6 trillion by 2027.
Analysts respond to Nvidia’s growth
The Economist, on the other hand, has raised some doubts about the spread of AI. In a July 2 article, the magazine said that incorporating “AI into business processes remains a niche pursuit.”
“Even bullish analysts think Microsoft will make only about $10 billion from generative-AI-related sales this year,” the publication reported. “Beyond America’s West Coast, there is little sign AI is having much of an effect on anything.”
The Economist pointed to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, which found that overall use of AI tools by firms in the production of goods and services rose to 5.4% in February from 3.7% last fall, and it is expected to rise in the U.S. to 6.6% by early fall.
The use of AI by companies is still rather small because many businesses haven’t yet seen a need for it, Census Bureau researchers said.
“Many small businesses, such as barber shops, nail salons or dry cleaners, may not yet see a use for AI, but this can change with growing business applications of AI,” they said. “One potential explanation is the current lack of AI applications to a wide variety of business problems.
