To say that 2023 is the year of artificial intelligence would be an understatement of the year.
From Nvidia (NVDA) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to Microsoft (MSFT) and OpenAI, Silicon Valley can’t get enough of generative AI. Listen to any corporate earnings call and you’ll hear CEOs like Amazon’s (AMZN) Andy Jassy, Meta’s (META) Mark Zuckerberg, Intel’s (INTC) Pat Gelsinger, and AMD’s (AMD) Lisa Su. They highlight their companies’ artificial intelligence capabilities.
Even Wendy’s got in on the act, adding a productive AI assistant to its drive-thru in May as part of a testing program. The fast food chain will expand to more locations in 2024.
Artificial intelligence may be the biggest story of 2023, but it actually started gaining steam in November 2022 when OpenAI launched ChatGPT. The chatbot became the fastest growing app in history up to that point, reaching 100 million monthly users in just two months.
Still, here are some highlights from the biggest story of 2023: The generative AI boom.
Fireplace:
Following the success of ChatGPT, Microsoft announced in January that it would invest $10 billion in OpenAI over several years. In February, while rumors were circulating that Microsoft was preparing to release its own AI chatbot powered by ChatGPT, Google launched its Bard bot. But details were light at the launch. Days later, Microsoft lifted the lid on its Bing chatbot and its new Edge browser. Both Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the stage to explain the partnership and how the two companies will deliver generative AI to Microsoft’s customers.
March:
Google stepped in and opened access to Bard to a limited number of users. The move was widely seen as a way for Google to keep up with one of its biggest rivals in tech. Not to be outdone, in March, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg announced that AI was the company’s biggest investment.
April:
Google announced that it will bring together the Brain AI team from Google Research and DeepMind to form Google DeepMind, a new AI-first enterprise. That same month, Amazon announced its Bedrock platform, which gives enterprise customers access to generative AI base models and its own Titan base models.
May:
Google continued to publish the news. Bard has made its chatbot public. It also launched the Search Productive Experience, a generative AI-powered version of Google Search, during its I/O developer conference. Microsoft later responded by announcing that it would bring AI-powered Windows Copilot to Windows 11. Ah, Nvidia’s market cap briefly surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, cementing its status as the AI chip leader.
July:
As AI continues to make headlines, the Biden Administration announced agreements with Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI to comply with voluntary codes regarding AI security and development. Also in July, Microsoft announced it would charge customers $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Copilot, which adds productive AI capabilities to the company’s productivity suite. The next month, in August, Google responded by saying it would charge $30 per user per month for its own generative AI productivity offering, Duet AI for Workspace.
September:
Wanting to delve deeper into generative artificial intelligence, Amazon announced that it will invest $4 billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic. Meta also announced that it is rolling out AI stickers, a new AI assistant for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, in its apps. It has also spawned AI personalities like celebrities like Tom Brady and Kendall Jenner. Also in September: With growing fears that AI is being used in negative ways and no sign of action from Congress, the Biden Administration signed an executive order aimed at addressing potential cybersecurity, discrimination, and growth issues related to AI.
November:
OpenAI hosted its first developer event in November, where it introduced a more powerful version of GPT-4 (GPT-4 Turbo) and an app store for ChatGPT called GPT Store. (Customers can buy customized versions of the company’s AI software here.) Then all hell broke loose at OpenAI. The board fired CEO Sam Altman seemingly out of the blue. Microsoft stepped in and offered him a job, hundreds of OpenAI employees threatened to resign, and OpenAI eventually brought Altman back along with some new board members, including a non-voting “observer” role for Microsoft. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced its own Q chatbot to better compete with rivals like Microsoft and Google.
December:
Finally this month, Google introduced its GPT-4 competitor, Gemini.
And the thing is, that’s not all the AI news making headlines this year. Expect even more in 2024.
In other words: buckle up.
Daniel Howley He is the technology editor of Yahoo Finance. He has been interested in the technology sector since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter. @DanielHowley.
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