Global search interest for the term “AI” has reached a new all-time high at Google, though it hasn’t yet reached the peak of bitcoin mania (BTC) in 2017, as revealed by the data.
Artificial intelligence has dominated the headlines in recent months, with some suggesting it’s the latest “tech fad” after cryptocurrencies and the metaverse.
More recently, OpenAI executives warned in a May 23 blog post that, in the next 10 years, AI will exceed the skill level of experts in “most domains” and will be as productive as “one of the largest current corporations.
However, While US and global search interest in AI has reached a fever pitch, ticking 89 on Google Trends, it’s still far from bitcoin’s peak search interest of 100 in December 2017, when bitcoin was near its then-high of $20,000.
Mark Schilsky, a technology specialist at Alliance Bernstein, noted on May 31 that AI was “still well below the absolute bitcoin hype,” according to a report from Business Insider. His analysis focused specifically on search trends in the United States.
Schilisky compared the three “hottest segments of the tech industry” over the past 10 years – “AI”, “metaverse” and “bitcoin” – to reveal that the peak search volume for “bitcoin” is higher than the peak search volume for IA to date.
In China, the story is different.
However, the results are very different in China, where cryptocurrency is banned and Google searches are restricted. The country prefers Baidu as a search engine.
According to Google Trends, Chinese Google users have shown greater interest in AI searches than in bitcoin searches since May 2013.
Over the past decade, there have only been three instances of bitcoin topping AI searches in China, which align with significant bitcoin-related events.
In November 2013, bitcoin overtook AI as search time in China for the first time, coinciding with the time it reached its peak. then highest level, USD 300, on the now-defunct Mt. Gox crypto exchange.
In December 2017, when bitcoin hit highs of nearly $20,000, bitcoin once again led the search interest.
The third and most recent event took place in February 2021, when bitcoin soared above $43,000 following the news that Tesla had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin, and his decision to start accepting bitcoin payments.
The country banned cryptocurrencies in 2021 and shortly thereafter, Cointelegraph staff in China reported that online searches for several major crypto exchanges returned zero results.
For his part, China has seen searches for “AI” reach an all-time high of 100 in April 2023. Currently, the search score hovers around 94.
In May, Flytek, a Chinese state-sponsored AI company, announced the release of “Spark Model”, an AI system designed to directly compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Chinese officials recently discussed the need to “dedicate efforts to safeguard political security and improve governance of Internet data security and artificial intelligence,” during a meeting on May 30. According to a local media outlet, it was stated:
“We must be prepared for worst case and extreme scenarios and be ready to withstand the great test of high winds, rough water and even dangerous storms.”
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