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Greater than half of Fortune 500 companies see synthetic intelligence as a possible danger to their companies, in line with a brand new survey of company filings that highlights how the rising expertise might result in sweeping industrial transformation.
General, 56 per cent of Fortune 500 companies cited AI as a “danger issue” of their most up-to-date annual reviews, in line with analysis by Arize AI, a analysis platform that tracks public disclosures by giant companies. The determine is a putting bounce from simply 9 per cent in 2022.
In contrast, solely 33 companies of the 108 that particularly mentioned generative AI — expertise able to creating humanlike textual content and sensible imagery — noticed it as a chance. Potential advantages embody price efficiencies, operational advantages and accelerating innovation, these teams stated of their annual reviews. Greater than two-thirds of that group specified generative AI as a danger.
The disclosures display that the impression of generative AI is already being felt throughout an array of industries and on the majority of the most important listed companies within the US.
The predictive machine studying expertise has boomed over the previous two years since OpenAI’s launch of its widespread chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then, Massive Tech companies have invested tens of billions of {dollars} to develop highly effective AI methods and a whole bunch of start-ups have launched to capitalise on the chance for disruption.
Amongst Fortune 500 companies, AI dangers talked about in annual monetary reviews this 12 months embody larger competitors, as boardrooms fret they might fail to maintain tempo with rivals who’re higher exploiting the expertise.
Different potential harms embody reputational or operational points, such as changing into ensnared in moral issues about AI’s potential impression 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 companies stated that fast-growing AI methods had been a enterprise danger this 12 months, as effectively as 86 per cent of software program and expertise teams.
Over two-thirds of Fortune 500 telecommunications companies and greater than half of healthcare, monetary companies, retail, shopper and aerospace companies gave the identical warning to buyers.
For instance, Netflix, the $290bn streaming service, warned that rivals might achieve a bonus over it by deploying AI, which might have an effect on “our potential to compete successfully and our outcomes of operations might be adversely impacted”.
Telecoms group Motorola stated: “AI might not at all times function as meant and information units could also be inadequate or include unlawful, biased, dangerous or offensive data, which might negatively impression” its earnings and popularity.
Some companies cited monetary dangers associated to the evolving use of AI methods, such as mounting and unpredictable prices.
Salesforce, a software program enterprise valued at $250bn, stated its adoption of AI “presents rising moral points” round information assortment and privateness. It stated its revenue margins might be affected by “uncertainty” round rising AI purposes, which meant it could possible should 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 companies.
Leisure large Disney warned that “guidelines governing new expertise developments” like generative AI “stay unsettled”, which might hit its current enterprise mannequin such as income streams for using its intellectual property and the way it creates leisure merchandise.
Viatris, the pharmaceutical group that was spun out of Pfizer, warned that using AI options by staff or suppliers “might result in the general public disclosure of confidential data” as effectively as “unauthorised entry” to private information regarding staff, scientific trial individuals or others.
Among the many few companies touting AI as a possible profit had been healthcare teams Quest Diagnostics and Cigna, which stated generative AI was enhancing components of the enterprise such as 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”.