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Greater than half of Fortune 500 corporations see synthetic intelligence as a possible threat to their companies, in keeping with a brand new survey of company filings that highlights how the rising know-how may result in sweeping industrial transformation.
Total, 56 per cent of Fortune 500 corporations cited AI as a “threat issue” of their most up-to-date annual studies, in keeping with analysis by Arize AI, a analysis platform that tracks public disclosures by massive companies. The determine is a placing bounce from simply 9 per cent in 2022.
Against this, solely 33 corporations of the 108 that particularly mentioned generative AI — know-how able to creating humanlike textual content and real looking imagery — noticed it as a possibility. Potential advantages embody price efficiencies, operational advantages and accelerating innovation, these teams stated of their annual studies. Greater than two-thirds of that group specified generative AI as a threat.
The disclosures show that the affect of generative AI is already being felt throughout an array of industries and on the majority of the most important listed corporations within the US.
The predictive machine studying know-how has boomed over the previous two years since OpenAI’s launch of its widespread chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then, Massive Tech corporations have invested tens of billions of {dollars} to develop highly effective AI programs and lots of of start-ups have launched to capitalise on the chance for disruption.
Amongst Fortune 500 corporations, AI dangers talked about in annual monetary studies this yr embody larger competitors, as boardrooms fret they might fail to maintain tempo with rivals who’re higher exploiting the know-how.
Different potential harms embody reputational or operational points, equivalent to turning into ensnared in moral issues about AI’s potential affect on human rights, employment and privateness.
Some industries are extra apprehensive about AI than others.
Greater than 90 per cent of the most important US media and leisure corporations stated that fast-growing AI programs had been a enterprise threat this yr, in addition to 86 per cent of software program and know-how teams.
Over two-thirds of Fortune 500 telecommunications corporations and greater than half of healthcare, monetary providers, retail, client and aerospace corporations gave the identical warning to buyers.
For instance, Netflix, the $290bn streaming service, warned that opponents may achieve a bonus over it by deploying AI, which might have an effect on “our means to compete successfully and our outcomes of operations might be adversely impacted”.
Telecoms group Motorola stated: “AI might not all the time function as meant and knowledge units could also be inadequate or comprise unlawful, biased, dangerous or offensive info, which may negatively affect” its earnings and repute.
Some corporations cited monetary dangers associated to the evolving use of AI programs, equivalent to mounting and unpredictable prices.
Salesforce, a software program enterprise valued at $250bn, stated its adoption of AI “presents rising moral points” round knowledge assortment and privateness. It stated its revenue margins might be affected by “uncertainty” round rising AI purposes, which meant it could probably need to commit larger funding to develop and take a look at new fashions.
Authorized, regulatory and cyber safety AI dangers had been additionally a standard theme amongst Fortune 500 corporations.
Leisure large Disney warned that “guidelines governing new know-how developments” like generative AI “stay unsettled”, which may hit its current enterprise mannequin equivalent to income streams for using its mental property and the way it creates leisure merchandise.
Viatris, the pharmaceutical group that was spun out of Pfizer, warned that using AI options by workers or suppliers “may result in the general public disclosure of confidential info” in addition to “unauthorised entry” to private knowledge regarding workers, scientific trial members or others.
Among the many few corporations touting AI as a possible profit had been healthcare teams Quest Diagnostics and Cigna, which stated generative AI was bettering components of the enterprise equivalent to customer support, specimen processing and claims evaluation, and promoting company IPG, which stated it was “including intelligence to the creation of content material throughout the advertising and marketing spectrum”.
