More than half of the Fortune 500 companies, which include the world’s 500 richest companies, see artificial intelligence as a potential risk to their businesses, according to a new survey of the companies’ own records.
Overall, 56% of Fortune 500 companies cited artificial intelligence as a “risk factor” in their most recent annual reports, according to research by Arize AI, a research platform that tracks public announcements by large companies, as noted by the Financial Times . This figure is an impressive jump from just 9% in 2022.
In contrast, only 33 of the 108 companies that specifically mentioned creative artificial intelligence, a technology capable of generating human-like text and realistic images, saw it as an opportunity. Potential benefits include efficiency, operational benefits and accelerated innovation, the groups said in their annual reports. More than two-thirds of this group identified creative artificial intelligence as a risk.
The announcements demonstrate that the impact of creative AI is already being felt across a range of industries and at the majority of the largest publicly traded companies in the US.
Machine learning technology has boomed in the past two years, since OpenAI launched the popular chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then, Big Tech companies have invested tens of billions of dollars to develop powerful AI systems and hundreds of startups have begun seizing the opportunity for disruption.
Among Fortune 500 companies, risks from AI cited in annual financial reports this year include greater competition, as boards worry they may fail to keep up with rivals who are better at exploiting the technology.
Other potential damages include reputational or operational issues, such as becoming embroiled in ethical concerns about potential impacts on human rights, employment and privacy.
Which industries are most worried about artificial intelligence?
Some industries are more concerned about AI than others. More than 90% of the largest US media and entertainment companies said that rapidly developing artificial intelligence systems are a business risk this year, as well as 86% of software and technology groups.
More than two-thirds of its telecommunications companies Fortune 500 and more than half of healthcare, financial services, retail, consumer goods and aerospace companies issued the same warning to investors.
For example, the Netflixwarned that competitors could gain an advantage over it by developing artificial intelligence, which would affect “our ability to compete effectively and our results of operations could be adversely affected.”
Some companies cited financial risks associated with the evolving use of AI systems, such as rising and unpredictable costs.
Salesforce, a software company valued at $250 billion, said the adoption of artificial intelligence “presents emerging ethical issues” around data collection and privacy. It said its margins could be affected by “uncertainty” around emerging AI applications, meaning it would likely have to commit greater investment to developing and testing new models.
Legal, regulatory, and cybersecurity risks related to artificial intelligence were also a common theme among Fortune 500 companies.
The entertainment giant Disney warned that “the rules governing new technological developments” such as creative artificial intelligence “remain unclear”, which could hurt its existing business model, such as revenue streams from the use of its intellectual property and how with which he creates entertainment products.
Among the few companies touting AI as a potential benefit were healthcare groups Quest Diagnostics and Cigna, which said creative AI is improving parts of the business such as customer service, sample processing and claims analysis.
Source: ot.gr
#Artificial #intelligence #worlds #powerful #companies #fear
