Today, we’re doing something a little different: a brief video. You can simply the click the video above or read the transcript summary below…
Late in April, I traveled to San Francisco, California – and not for a vacation.
I made the trek for a singular destination: this building pictured below.
This building is home base to a team of folks who are in the process of changing the world forever… in ways we cannot possibly imagine.
You know, 20 years ago, if we had played a word-association game, and I said “San Francisco,” you might have replied with something like cable cars, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, or maybe Haight-Ashbury. Or if you’re about my age, you might even have said Rice-a-Roni.
If we were to play that game today, the moment I uttered “San Francisco,” you might say something like “homeless crisis” or “woke politics.”
There are no wrong answers: Cable cars still inch up and down the city’s famously hilly streets, and homeless encampments line many of those streets.
But I’m betting that 20 years from now, this word-association game will elicit just one response: artificial intelligence.
A Tale Of Two Americas
A lot of people don’t realize it…but America has been divided into two groups for the last 30 years or so.
Now when I talk about two groups, I’m not talking about rich or poor. Instead, these two groups revolve around those who know how to leverage new technologies… and those who don’t…
The 1% make up the first group – the ones who managed to take advantage of the internet’s wealth-building opportunities… while the 99% make up the second group.
Right now, there’s an incredible opportunity for everyday Americans to ascend to the first group. And it’s all thanks to a brand-new technology silently taking the country by storm.
Opportunity Awaits
You see, the building I visited is quite literally the birthplace of artificial intelligence, or at least the first widely adopted version of artificial intelligence.
This building is the headquarters of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT. That’s the AI chatbot that has become an overnight global sensation.
Even though ChatGPT launched about six months ago, it has already captured more than 100 million users.
For perspective, it took Facebook four years to gain 100 million users! And it took Netflix an entire decade to reach that milestone.
But ChatGPT isn’t as new as it seems. In fact, its roots go back to 2015…
That was the year Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and a few other tech billionaires formed their non-profit entity called OpenAI. They started this venture with the high-minded goal of helping to shape the future of AI in ways that would benefit society as a whole.
Because these tech insiders understood AI’s power to revolutionize many areas of human life, they also understood its destructive power – like the power to eliminate jobs and create extreme wealth inequality.
Therefore, the OpenAI founders formed their organization to address these issues head-on to help ensure that AI technologies would develop in a responsible and ethical manner.
Those lofty goals sounded great until the moment this altruistic, nonprofit became a capitalistic, for-profit enterprise.
That moment occurred on Nov. 30, 2022, when OpenAI flipped the switch that released ChatGPT to the public…
And when they flipped that switch, they also opened the gates to an AI free-for-all. No more rules, no more boundaries, no more ethical constraints. Just a no-holds-barred free-for-all.
To be fair, OpenAI’s founders probably never had a chance of restraining AI’s power anyway. They exerted about as much control over its future development as a sandcastle exerts over the ocean waves.
So AI is now roaming free… and the world will never be the same.
Out With the Old
AI will produce both massive opportunity… and massive disruption.
As such, the OpenAI building is the spiritual twin of the laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey that Thomas Edison used nearly 150 years ago to invent the incandescent bulb.
Edison’s lab did not merely produce a technological innovation; it unleashed a world-altering power that revolutionized life on planet Earth.
Edison’s invention was arguably the most impactful technological advancement since the discovery of fire. Beginning with the humble lightbulb, electrification would extend its reach into nearly every corner of human activity… and alter it forever.
AI possesses a similar power… perhaps on steroids.
Like electricity, AI isn’t a tangible product. You cannot hold AI in your hands or wrap it up in a box and give it to a friend on their birthday.
It isn’t even a specific technology like the Uber app or cloud computing.
AI is a faceless, abstract category of human-brain-mimicking processes.
It is a mystery of epic proportions. Its far-reaching power and potential are both exhilarating and frightening. Or as the technology writer Kevin Roose put it recently, the conversation about AI operates “between the binary poles of euphoria and terror.”
Because AI can do what humans cannot, it possesses the power to improve the plight of humanity. But since AI can also do what many of us humans can do, it possesses the power to harm our lives by putting us out of a job.
And that’s not all. AI also possesses the power to replace our creativity. It can produce the kind of art we might like to produce… or write the kind of song lyrics we might like to write… or create the kinds of novels or screenplays we might like to create.
In other words, AI has the potential to steal humanity from humans… and never give it back.
That’s terrifying.
But as terrifying as AI can be, its euphoric potential is no less real.
Theoretically, AI could produce modern miracles, like inventing the cures for cancer that have eluded scientists for decades.
Or it could operate alongside physicians to improve diagnoses and prevent human error throughout the healthcare system.
That’s a big deal since medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The good news for us, both as humans and investors, is that the opportunity to profit from AI-driven investments is a “today thing,” while most of the scariest AI risks are a “tomorrow thing.”
So I suggest focusing on the today things, while still keeping a wary eye on the tomorrow things.
In With the New
Generally speaking, all major technological advancements introduce some measure of both euphoria and terror; AI is not the first to do so.
It is not the first technology to introduce both creative and destructive possibilities.
Fire, for example, can warm your hands and cook your food, but it can also burn your house down.
The invention of the airplane dramatically reduced travel times around the globe. But the identical invention that flies tourists to Tahiti can also drop bombs on cities.
So don’t let the terrifying aspects of AI distract you from the amazing opportunities it is creating.
This is a moment to seize the moment by exploring the vast opportunities artificial intelligence is introducing to the world.
This story may have started in the building behind me, but it has not even completed the first chapter.
Opportunity awaits – and at Fry’s Investment Report, we’re charging into the opportunities that arise at full speed.
Since we jumped on this trend at the end of February, the four plays I’ve recommended have already risen an average of 18%!
And I anticipate much more to come as the adoption and improvement of AI becomes more widespread…
Because companies that you wouldn’t even necessarily associate with AI – like makeup brands, miners, industrial solutions providers, and even renewable energy managers – are beneficiaries of this massive megatrend.
I detail all this and more in this exclusive presentation – right where I filmed the video you saw earlier.
Regards,
Eric
P.S. The AI megatrend is only in its first chapter. We haven’t even yet scraped the surface of what artificial intelligence can do – and the money that can be made from it. By watching this brief video presentation here, I’ll reveal how you can get in on the ground floor of this megatrend before it truly takes off.
