U.S. tech companies dominate the generative AI boom—and the cost of model training explains why, a new Stanford University report shows
We hope some of you got to enjoy all the fascinating discussions, professional networking, and fun at Fortune Brainstorm AI London earlier this week. If you weren’t able to attend, you can get a taste of what took place by reading Fortune’s coverage of the event here. And it’s not too soon to start making plans for the next Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in Singapore in July. You can find out more, including how to register for that event here. The rise of multimodal foundation models, increasing investment in generative AI, an influx of regulations, and shifting opinions on AI around the globe—it’s all discussed in the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) 2024 AI Index, a 500-page report covering AI development and trends. For this year’s report, the seventh HAI has published, the Institute said it broadened its scope to include more original data than ever, including new estimates on AI training costs and an entirely new chapter dedicated to AI’s impact on science and medicine.
Overall, the report paints a picture of a rapidly growing and increasingly complex (and expensive) AI landscape dominated by commercial entities, particularly U.S. tech giants. The number of new LLMs released globally in 2023 doubled compared to the previous year, according to the report. Investment in generative AI also skyrocketed, and so did global mentions of AI in legislative proceedings and regulations—in the U.S. alone last year, the total number of AI-related regulations increased by 56.3%.
