Some big questions about artificial intelligence; How my entrepreneur friend is using this tech; New crypto recommendation from my colleague Eric Wade

1) Ever since I was a kid, I've always been fascinated by the latest tech toys and tools.

I remember in 1978, when I was in fifth grade, I lived on the campus of Stanford University, where my dad was a graduate student.

I used to sneak into the computer center, where dozens of terminals were powered by a massive supercomputer (that probably had less processing power than the phone in your pocket right now – seriously!), and play a game exploring outer space – until the supervisor noticed me and kicked me out!

Given my lifelong fascination with cutting-edge technology, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I still haven't fully figured out artificial intelligence ("AI"). It poses some big questions, such as:

• Is it just another fad – mostly an excuse for stock promoters to hype some worthless stocks – or is it going to be as big or even bigger than the Internet?
• Will it massively change the world for the better? Or, as Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk warned last year, is it "one of the existential risks that we face" and "one of the biggest threats [to humans]"?
• Will it allow companies to lay off millions of workers, leading to widespread unemployment and social unrest?
• What companies and industries are going to benefit, and which will be disrupted?
• How can average folks use it to save time and money and improve their lives?

I wish I had definitive answers to these questions right now, but I don't.

However, and as I develop my thoughts about AI and the answers to these questions, I'll share them with you here...

2) Yesterday, at a Stansberry Research corporate retreat, we were discussing AI and the thought occurred to me: "I wonder whether my friend John [not his real name – he prefers to remain anonymous] is using AI in his business?"

He's one of the smartest guys I know. He founded and runs a medical-device company located in Silicon Valley that's developing amazingly innovative technologies.

Some of the top investors, venture capitalists, and corporations in the space (and myself) have invested nearly $200 million in his company, which is growing rapidly and has more than 100 employees.

I e-mailed him the following: "We're having a discussion of AI here and thinking about industries it might impact. I'm curious if you see it impacting your company or the medical-device sector?"

John was kind enough to send me an in-depth reply and gave me permission to share some of it with my readers here.

He, his company, and others in his industry are all using AI in various ways. As John says for his field:

AI is used in gastrointestinal endoscopy for polyp detection. It is better than what people can achieve on their own, and it works. It is here, now, today.

But it is a good example of something that is useful but not valuable – it is so easy to do (you can readily procure 100,000 colonoscopy videos to train the AI, and then maybe half a dozen people can develop the software in two years) that it is not a money-making product. Medtronic's (MDT) GI Genius is a good example of this.

John thinks artists are especially at risk. As he said in his e-mail:

As a company, we have a large number of (internal) promotional posters. In the past, we had to engage world-class artists on projects that typically took four months, 15 hours of my time, and cost $4,000. Now, using AI, these projects only take two weeks, three hours of my time, and cost $700.

Once we have our final design, we use another AI source to make the resolution 10 times better. We used to use the artists for their creativity... now we use ChatGPT for its creativity, and the artists just do the easy administrative fixes at the end to polish it up as a finished product.

AI is much more creative than the best artists in the world – it's not even close. The intricacy and breadth of the ideas is mind-blowing. It's a fabulous source for prototyping.

If I were an artist, I would be terrified.

In his e-mail, John also cited more mundane uses of AI:

I'm an engineer, not a writer, so I use ChatGPT every day to make my writing better. I also use it for research – it's very good at putting together ideas that would otherwise take me hours to pursue. The interface is much more intuitive than doing a search using Google.

We are pursuing AI for case report writing – not a sexy application, but very useful and valuable and time-saving.

As a side note, virtually every parent I know has had issues with their kids using it for homework – it is really easy for kids to use it to do their work for them.

Lastly, John shared his thoughts on how an investor might think about AI:

As an investor, AI is very different than previous waves. I don't know of many AI-based companies I can buy as a public investor (besides Nvidia [ticker: NVDA]). In this way, it's obviously very different than the internet craze in 1999, which I could invest in a large number of publicly traded start-ups.

Huge amounts of data are required to make AI work, so maybe the benefits accrue mostly not to start-ups, but to the large companies that have access to large amounts of data and computing horsepower like Microsoft (MSFT), [Meta Platforms' (META)] Facebook, and Alphabet (GOOGL).

Thank you, John! Understanding all of the ways you, your company, and your industry are using AI has helped opened my eyes more, not just to its potential, but to the real-world effect it's having right now.

AI is definitely not a fad. But whether it ends up being more impactful than the Internet, I'm not yet persuaded...

3) And speaking of AI...

My Stansberry colleague Eric Wade just published a brand-new issue of his Crypto Capital newsletter yesterday evening. And the new recommendation in this issue is directly tied to AI.

As Eric explained in the issue, it's "a startup seeking to create an 'AI Internet' that brings together AI innovators, data providers, businesses, and infrastructure providers."

He also believes that, by investing early in a cryptocurrency "token" tied to this startup and project, "7X gains are possible in the near term... with 100X gains possible over the long term."

I've been a longtime skeptic on cryptos. But if you're going to put a bit of money to work in the space, you need an expert guide like Eric. And he has the track record to prove it – he has booked more 1,000%-plus gains than anyone else at our company just by using cryptos.

To find out how to gain instant access to Eric's brand-new Crypto Capital recommendation – and learn more about his approach and what he sees coming in the sector this year – click here.

Best regards,

Whitney

P.S. I welcome your feedback – send me an e-mail by clicking here.