Over the last several months, artificial intelligence, or AI, has become a fixture in conversations. AI has become increasingly commonplace as a tool for essay writing and homework help for high school and college students, as well as a data analysis tool and writing tool for businesses.
On Tuesday, Microsoft stock climbed nearly 6%, following news that the company will offer a new artificial intelligence subscription service for Microsoft 365, charging users an additional $30 per month. The service will integrate generative AI with existing tools in the Microsoft suite, such as Teams, Excel, and Word.
In addition, Microsoft and Meta announced support for developers on their blog.
According to the Washington-based company, “Today, at Microsoft Inspire, Meta and Microsoft announced support for the Llama 2 family of large language models (LLMs) on Azure and Windows. Llama 2 is designed to enable developers and organizations to build generative AI-powered tools and experiences. Meta and Microsoft share a commitment to democratizing AI and its benefits, and we are excited that Meta is taking an open approach with Llama 2. We offer developers choice in the types of models they build on, supporting open and frontier models, and are thrilled to be Meta’s preferred partner as they release their new version of Llama 2 to commercial customers for the first time.”
Tech Competition
The news arrives amid frantic competition between tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, and IBM to offer consumer-driven generative AI tools.
“It’s grounded in your business data in the Microsoft Graph — that’s all your emails, calendar, chats, documents, and more,” Microsoft wrote in a release, adding that the tool abides by a user’s preset security, privacy, and compliance policies for Microsoft 365.
While the tech giant has yet to provide a timeframe for its public rollout, the tool is presently in early-stage testing with 600 enterprise customers, including Goodyear and General Motors.
There are several options for investors looking to participate in the AI movement using ETFs.
The Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ) invests in an index of companies that stand to benefit from the increased adoption of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The fund is almost 1% higher on Tuesday.
Another fund is ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO). Some of the fund’s largest holdings include iRobot Corp. (IRBT) and Cognex Corp. (CGNX), although no single stock accounts for more than 2.5% of the portfolio.
For more news, information, and strategy, visit the Artificial Intelligence Channel.
