Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT are in the news everywhere these days with stories about how AI is making people more efficient. Many companies are talking about how they use AI when they announce their quarterly financial results. Analysts have even started counting the number of times that a company says AI during these announcements. We would expect AI to be discussed when technology, and especially semiconductor companies, report their results. But even a company in the grocery business was talking about how they are using AI to improve their company.
What is ChatGPT and why are so many people talking about it? In the FJP blog this month, we will discuss a variety of topics related to AI, ChatGPT, and how Financial Journey Partners is using AI to better serve our clients.
We will discuss:
- What is Artificial Intelligence?
- Which companies are involved with AI and how are they using it?
- What is ChatGPT and how is it used?
- How is AI used by Financial Journey Partners?
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What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by using machines, especially computer systems. You can think of AI as an autocomplete function that has been trained on a large part of the internet. Large amounts of data are fed into AI systems, which then analyze for correlations and patterns. These patterns are used to make predictions about future states.
AI possesses no understanding of the world. It excels at predictive tasks like writing code. AI is not as good at human tasks, such as providing medical information and diagnosis. It learns the statistics of words and how to properly respond to certain prompts. A current limitation of AI is that it is not very good at learning abstract concepts.
Which companies are involved with AI and how are they using it?
There has been a significant increase in companies reporting the use of AI.
Some of the more obvious technology companies that are using AI include:
- Nvidia and AMD - who are making semiconductors for AI
- Microsoft - uses AI in their search function Bing, Microsoft 365, Windows, and their Azure internet business
- Amazon - uses AI in their internet and distribution business, plus services offered through their Amazon Web Services internet business
- Google - uses AI in its internet search engines
- Adobe – uses AI to search content such as images, videos, documents and audio, plus retrieve, organize and edit content
A less obvious example of a company using AI is the grocery store chain, Kroger. Their CEO mentioned AI 8 times in their last company earnings call1. The quarter before that was zero.
FactSet is a company that tracks earnings results by companies. They have also been tracking how many times companies mention AI during earnings calls.2
Number of S&P 500 Companies Citing 'AI' on Earning Calls in 10 Years:
Source:FactSet2 Enlarged View
Companies from many different sectors and industries are talking about AI.
Number of S&P 500 Companies Citing AI on Earning Calls in Q1 2023 by Industry:
Source:FactSet2 Enlarged View
What the data shows is that companies are talking about AI more each quarter and AI is changing businesses in many different industries.
A tool this powerful does not come without some areas of concern. There is continuing debate about how it can be best used in schools. Some teachers favor banning it due to fears of cheating on homework. For example, the New York City education department blocked ChatGPT on school devices and networks.3 Others have argued that educators are going to need to learn how to teach with it because it will be difficult to ban it.4
What is ChatGPT and how does it work?
An AI service that has been in the news recently is ChatGPT. It is a natural language processing tool that is powered by AI technology, and it allows you to have human-like conversations with it. It is commonly used to enable users to refine, and steer written content towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail and language used. You can copy a paragraph into ChatGPT and ask it to make it shorter, longer, simpler, or more complex. It can modify written content placed in the system or give comments on a topic.
For example, I put the paragraph above into ChatGPT, pressed enter and this is what ChatGPT said:
“Absolutely correct! I am designed to help generate, understand, and refine written content in numerous ways. My training on diverse internet text allows me to provide meaningful responses and can mimic various styles of writing.
With regard to refining content, you can indeed ask me to modify a given text in multiple ways. This includes shortening or lengthening it, simplifying the language, or making it more complex, among other things. This can be very useful for tasks like drafting or editing written work, generating summaries, or transforming technical language into more easily understandable text.
Moreover, I can generate text on a wide range of topics, providing contextually relevant responses based on the information I was trained on. This makes me useful for commenting on different topics, answering questions, providing explanations, and more.
However, remember that while I try to be as accurate and helpful as possible, I do have limitations. For example, I don't possess beliefs, emotions, or consciousness, and I don't have the ability to understand or process text in the same way humans do. Additionally, my responses are purely based on my training, and I don't have access to personal data from users unless explicitly provided in the course of the conversation. Always make sure to verify information from multiple sources, particularly for crucial matters.”
I copied the same paragraph into ChatGPT several times and it gave me slightly different answers each time. The content of each answer was essentially the same but with different words and phrases.
ChatGPT was created by OpenAI. This organization was started in late 2015 as a non-profit venture, to further the research related to AI. The largest donor was Elon Musk, but other well-known donors include Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, and Peter Thiel.
OpenAI offers their earlier versions of ChatGPT for free, but the significantly better, newest version has a subscription of $20/month. A significant limitation of ChatGPT is that the information in the system is only through September 2021, so it does not know anything that happened in the world for the past few years at this time.
How is AI used by Financial Journey Partners?
We believe AI will continue to be used more and more in our daily lives, just as in the late 1990’s we could see the internet would change how we live. Recently Richard Baldwin, an economist stated at the 2023 World Economic Forum’s Growth Summit, said “AI won’t take your job. It’s somebody using AI that will take your job.”
At Financial Journey Partners, we use AI daily, and in multiple ways. Every day, our Wealth Managers and Financial Analysts use software powered by AI to find and identify changes in trends and new areas trending for investments in the stock market. We use ChatGPT to sometimes refine parts of our emails, blogs, and newsletters – and yes, we fact-check it. ChatGPT can also do some of the searches we currently do in Google.
We use AI in our business because we want to provide the best experience we can for our clients. We are continually looking for new technology and ideas to improve everything we do. As your Wealth Manager, we will use all the tools we have available to help you make smart decisions, so you can do the things that are most important to you and enjoy the journey.
Financial Journey Partners - Partners in Your Financial Journey®
Our Financial Journey Partners office is based in San Jose, California. We have clients that live in many states across the country. If you have questions about your investments or financial situation, call us to schedule time to talk about your specific situation.
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References:
1 Bloomberg – The CEO of Kroger Mentioned ‘A”’ 8 Times on the Company's Earnings Call
2 FactSet – Highest Number of S&P 500 Companies Citing “AI” on Q1 Earnings Calls in Over 10 Years
3 Chalkbeat New York – NYC Education Department Blocks ChatGPT on School Devices
4 New York Times – Don't Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It