Nvidia Results Bolster Artificial Intelligence Enthusiasm

On February 21, Nvidia, a leader in artificial intelligence (“AI”) computing, added fuel to the AI fire when they announced their Q4 earnings. Revenue for the company of $22.1 billion exceeded forecasted expectations of $20 billion and represented 265% year-on-year growth. Nvidia boasts a strong resume of accolades, from being a “Magnificent Seven” stock to a top performing S&P 500 stock in 2023, and a stock on five Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) lists. The results for the period, along with an outlook for $24 billion for the upcoming quarter, not only bolster a strong AI enthusiasm, but they also solidify Nvidia’s importance to the AI market.

Nvidia is known for its graphics chips that drive video games on gaming devices and PCs which have since been expanded and used in many AI applications.

The news also comes as industry giants such as Microsoft and Amazon have announced their plans to spend billions on AI infrastructure during 2024.  

Current Artificial Intelligence – Narrow AI

As AI evolves from the days of Bell Lab’s Eliza, or IBM’s Watson, several subcategories of the sector as it exists today and as it is expected to evolve have emerged. Nvidia for example (as with all current forms of AI) is under a broad category considered “narrow” AI. Narrow AI is essentially designed to perform one task and does not apply learnings from that task to other tasks.

Within the category of narrow AI, Nvidia also operates within the trending subcategory of generative AI. Nvidia essentially creates products where a user can enter multiple inputs into a foundation model which can identify patterns and generate new content.  Their specific generative AI products are:

• NeMo, which creates language models,
• BioNeMo, which helps to quickly generate the structure of proteins and molecules,
• Picasso, which helps to generate visual content, and
• Avatar Cloud Engine, which aids in the building of digital avatars.

Future AI – General AI and Super AI

A lot of the buzz (and fear) around AI rests with what could be, general AI, and super AI.

General AI

General AI differentiates itself from narrow AI in that it seeks to mimic human intelligence to the extent of self-teaching, and therefore can learn, apply and correct from one task to another. While generative AI is a type of narrow AI (versus General AI), generative AI is helping to pave the way for further AI developments and spur additional investment in the area.

Super AI

Super AI represents the foundation of any machine versus man movie; it represents AI that is self-aware and intelligent, with the possibility of even surpassing human intelligence.

Concerns Driven by AI

Besides Terminator like fears, as AI rapidly expands and develops, some of the concerns include:

• Potential for job displacement
• Bias and lack of transparency
• Further wealth disparity and inequality
• Can be subject to bias and hallucinations

Artificial Intelligence’s Outlook

Despite this, AI shows no sign of slowing down, and some of the most significant recent outcomes that can already be seen from AI at large include:

• Improvements in patient monitoring in clinical trials and drug development
• Acceleration and increased specificity of medical diagnosis
• Natural language processing
• Chatbots and their recent evolution

With groups like Nvidia leading the way in the industry, developments and innovation in the space will continue, as will calls to address the challenges, and encourage responsible AI.