• Global search interest for the term “AI” has reached a new all-time high on Google, though it’s yet to hold a candle to peak Bitcoin BTC $27,155 mania in 2017.
• In China, it’s a completely different story with AI surpassing Bitcoin as a search term since May 2013.
• Mark Schilsky, an Alliance Bernstein technology specialist noted that AI is still far below the absolute hype of Bitcoin.
Search Interest for AI versus Bitcoin
Google Trends data reveals that even though AI is the talk of the town, it still pales in comparison to Bitcoin in 2017. In the United States, global and US search interest for AI has reached fever pitch clocking in at 89 on Google Trends, but it is still shy of Bitcoin’s peak search interest of 100 in December 2017 when its price was nearing its then-high of $20K. Mark Schilsky from Alliance Bernstein noted that “AI was still far below the absolute hype of Bitcoin.”
China’s Search Interest Favors AI Over Bitcoin
In China however, it’s a completely different story with cryptocurrency being banned and Google search being restricted while favoring Baidu as its search engine. According to Google Trends data over the last decade there have only been three instances where Bitcoin surpassed AI searches in China which line up with significant bitcoin related events: November 2013 when its price hit a then-high and December 2017 during peak mania.
OpenAI Executives Warn About Future Of Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI executives recently warned that within the next 10 years artificial intelligence will exceed expert skill level in “most domains” and be as productive as “one of today’s largest corporations”. This sparked even more discussion around this topic but this does not change the fact that currently global and US search interest for “AI” is still lower than what was seen during peak “Bitcoin” mania back in 2017.
Conclusion
While artificial intelligence has become one of the most talked about topics lately due to warnings from OpenAI executives about its future potential; globally and specifically in US searches are nowhere near what they were during peak bitcoin mania back in 2017. However, this changes drastically when looking at Chinese trends which favor “AI” searches over those related to cryptocurrency due to restrictions on blockchain technology and crypto trading within country borders since 2013 .