AI mentions skyrocket in major tech companies’ Q2 calls

As major tech companies race to develop and deploy high-level AI systems, mentions of the technology are skyrocketing in company calls.

The mention of artificial intelligence (AI) in earnings calls for major tech companies skyrocketed from the first to the second fiscal quarter, according to a report from Reuters.

The S&P 500 companies that took the lead in discussions surrounding AI included Google’s Alphabet, Intel, Microsoft and Meta, along with others such as Cadence Design, IBM, ServiceNow, Moody’s and Omnicom.

In Intel’s second-quarter call, AI was mentioned 58 times compared with 15 times in its first-quarter call. Alphabet’s call mentioned AI 62 times and Microsoft’s 58 — both up from 52 and 35 times in previous calls, respectively.

Tech companies aside, the Reuters report reveals that in the first two quarters of the year, the hype surrounding AI contributed t a 37% surge in the Nasdaq.

While Microsoft — backing ChatGPT’s OpenAI — Meta and Alphabet have been active in the development and deployment of AI systems and tools, Intel has been behind in the AI boom. According to the Reuters report, the company’s data center and AI business jumped by 15% in the last quarter.

These numbers confirm trends that can be clearly spotted in the market. Microsoft, Google and OpenAI formed the Frontier Model Forum on July 26 in an effort to regulate AI development.

Only a few days before the biggest tech companies in the AI business created the forum, the same group, with the addition of Meta committed to developing safe, secure and transparent AI to the United States White House.

On July 13, reports circulated that Meta planned to release a commercial version of its AI tools to rival those already on the market from OpenAI and Google. Following the news, Meta and Microsoft announced a collaboration to launch an open-source large language model called Llama 2.

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