Tech companies must all prove to the market that they are well placed in the race for generative artificial intelligence (AI) (AFP/Archives/Lionel BONAVENTURE)
Whether they sell advertising, smartphones or microchips, tech companies must all prove to the market that they are well placed in the race for generative artificial intelligence (AI).
“If you’re a business, and you don’t have ‘AI messaging’, you’re not going to be in business for very long,” notes Jack Gold, independent analyst.
“Nothing else matters right now. Everyone is trying to launch products faster and talk louder than the competition,” he continues.
Over the past two weeks, the main technology groups have published their financial results for the period from July to September.
Most beat analysts’ expectations, but Wall Street only had eyes for AI.
Google, the world number one in online advertising, saw its quarterly profits jump 42% year-on-year, to nearly $20 billion, beyond Wall Street expectations.
Its stock still lost more than 10% over two sessions because its cloud business – in full growth – disappointed.
The internet giant’s remote computing services have won over many start-ups specializing in AI, and “this will bear fruit over time, but for the moment it is not enough to satisfy investors” , commented Max Willens, analyst at Insider Intelligence.
– “Inferential use” –
The cloud is a major area for the development and deployment of so-called generative artificial intelligence, popularized by ChatGPT, the OpenAI interface launched a year ago.
Significant investments in AI in 2023 (AFP/Archives/Corin FAIFE, Sabrina BLANCHARD)
Considered by many observers as a revolution comparable to the advent of the internet, generative AI makes it possible to produce texts, images and sounds upon simple request in everyday language.
It is based on training language models in the cloud, computer systems that compile mountains of data to then be able to “create” content.
Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) have developed their own models.
Cloud services – Azure (Microsoft), AWS (Amazon) and Google Cloud in the lead – “are starting to derive revenue from AI, even if the costs probably remain higher at this stage”, underlines Yory Wurmser of Insider Intelligence.
Cloud services – Azure (Microsoft), AWS (Amazon) and Google Cloud in the lead – “are starting to derive revenue from AI (AFP/Archives/Fabrice COFFRINI)
“The excitement is about what’s possible, what’s going to change, how quickly it’s going to change.”
The main cost comes from the microprocessors. Nvidia hit the jackpot years ago by betting on the design of GPUs, those very expensive processors that have become essential to the training phase.
But “we need to understand how this AI is going to be used, ultimately,” says Jack Gold. “Approximately 80 to 90% of the tasks will relate to inference”, that is to say the normal functioning of the models, after their creation.
Intel, the American electronic chip giant, was therefore keen to highlight the potential of its CPUs, traditional microprocessors.
“We think that it is the inferential use of these models that will be truly spectacular in the future,” assured Pat Gelsinger, the boss of the Californian group.
“And this deployment is largely going to take place on our Xeon microprocessors.”
– “No one is late” –
Amazon, which has not trained its own model, will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI.
The world number one in online commerce and the cloud also placed emphasis on Bedrock, its tool for creating and deploying generative AI applications.
“It’s very complicated to determine which models to use, and how to obtain reliable results, while keeping costs under control. Our customers love Bedrock because the service eliminates a lot of this difficulty,” argued Andy Jassy, the boss of Amazon.
Apple is expected in particular on the side of Siri, its voice assistant which has changed little for years (AFP/Archives/SEBASTIEN BOZON)
Even Apple, always careful not to let its agenda be dictated by fashion, could not escape questions about generative AI.
“We are of course working on it. I am not going to go into details (…) but you can be sure that we are investing more than a little in this area”, indicated Tim Cook, the boss of the brand at the apple.
Apple is expected in particular on the side of Siri, its voice assistant which has changed little in years. Amazon recently announced the gradual addition of generative AI capabilities to its equivalent, Alexa.
“No one is late in a market that is just starting out, which will require investments, and which will start with businesses before really reaching consumers,” said Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Creative Strategies.
© 2023 AFP
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