AI: The Elephants Are Fighting

“When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled,” goes an old saying rooted in East Africa's Swahili language.

Most people likely feel like the grass in recent days, as one powerful, hyper-wealthy individual fights with even-more powerful governments, as large industry consolidations are announced, and as key Magnificent Seven member Nvidia gets knocked around by markets far more powerful than any single company.

The growing interest in, and use of, AI is behind two big acquisitions reported in this week's news links, totaling $36 billion in investment. A hiccup in Nvidia's AI-based fortunes took $400 billion of its market cap during the week. Yet the ongoing AI wave is also driving growth in the data center industry along with concerns about the industry's ability to scale and the world's ability to provide the water and power needed to scale it.

As the elephants fight, what can the rest of us do?

From a personal perspective, AI's power to manipulate news and create compelling – and often deceitful -- images is raising concerns. These concerns are in turn spawning legislation, such as SB 1047 in California, known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act. IDCA AI Counsel Mark Minevich noted in an AI-focused webinar this week that “90% of current AI development activity is happening in Silicon Valley, so SB 1047 is an enormously profound piece of legislation if Governor Newsom signs it.”

There is more optimism, however, from a business perspective. Enterprise IT and business-line managers can look at a wealth of specific benefits AI already offers to their businesses. According to Mark Minevich, 83% of organizations have identified AI as a top priority, 72% of organizations now use AI, 65% use generative AI in at least one business function, and 48% of businesses use AI to harness big data effectively.

Within business sectors:

-- Healthcare deployments include cloud-based health data platforms, AI-enhanced diagnostic tools, and IoT and wearable integration.

-- AI is being brought to bear to logistics and transportation in the manufacturing and retail sectors.

-- Ongoing high-performance and latency concerns in financial services are being addressed by AI systems equal to the microsecond-driven world of trading.

-- Renewed interest is being expressed in better enabled disaster management and more mundane government services.

-- Smart Cities and Smart Nations are still in conversations, and AI systems have potential to drive these movements further forward.