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More than half of the largest U.S. companies believe artificial intelligence is a potential risk to their business, according to a survey of company filings, and how emerging technology has the potential to radically transform industries. It highlights what is happening.
Overall, 56% of Fortune 500 companies cited AI as a “risk factor” in their most recent annual report, according to a study by Arize AI, a research platform that tracks public information from large companies. This number is a staggering increase from just 9% in 2022.
In contrast, of the 108 companies that specifically discussed generative AI (technology that can create human-like text and realistic images), only 33 saw it as an opportunity. The organizations say in their annual reports that potential benefits include cost efficiencies, operational advantages and accelerated innovation. More than two-thirds of that group identified generative AI as a risk.
These disclosures demonstrate that the impact of generative AI is already being felt across a variety of industries and at most of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States.
Predictive machine learning technology has boomed over the past two years since OpenAI released its popular chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then, Big Tech companies have invested tens of billions of dollars into developing powerful AI systems, and hundreds of startups have been launched. To take advantage of opportunities for destruction.
Among Fortune 500 companies, AI risks cited in this year’s annual financial reports include increased competition, forcing boards to keep pace with rivals that are better leveraging technology; I am concerned that I may not be able to do so.
Other potential harms include reputational and operational issues, such as getting caught up in ethical concerns about the potential impact of AI on human rights, employment, and privacy.
Some industries are more concerned about AI than others.
More than 90% of America’s largest media and entertainment companies said fast-growing AI systems are a business risk this year, as did 86% of software and technology groups.
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More than two-thirds of Fortune 500 carriers and more than half of health care, financial services, retail, consumer and aerospace companies issued similar warnings to investors.
For example, Netflix, the $290 billion streaming service, believes that deploying AI could give competitors an advantage and that it could “impact our ability to compete effectively and impact our performance.” may have a negative impact.”
Telecommunications group Motorola said: “AI may not always work as intended, and data sets may be insufficient or contain information that is illegal, biased, harmful or offensive. “This could have a negative impact on our revenues and reputation.”
Some companies cite financial risks associated with the evolving use of AI systems, including increasing and unpredictable costs.
Salesforce, a $250 billion software business, said the introduction of AI “raises new ethical questions” regarding data collection and privacy. The company said margins could be affected by “uncertainty” surrounding new AI applications, which would likely require further significant investment to develop and test new models. .
Legal, regulatory, and cybersecurity AI risks were also common themes among Fortune 500 companies.
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Entertainment giant Disney said that the “rules governing the development of new technologies” such as generative AI “remain unresolved” and could hurt its existing business model, such as the use of intellectual property and the way entertainment products are produced. I was warned that there would be.
Viatris, a pharmaceutical group independent from Pfizer, said the use of AI solutions by employees and suppliers “could lead to the disclosure of sensitive information” as well as “unauthorized access to personal data related to employees and clinical trials.” It warned that this could lead to “access”. participants and others.
Among the few companies touting the potential benefits of AI are healthcare groups Quest Diagnostics and Cigna, which say generative AI is improving parts of their business such as customer service, specimen processing and claims analysis. , said advertising agency IPG, “has an additional impact.” Provides intelligence for content creation across marketing domains. ”
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