AI Industry Updates: June 2023

Published 13 July 2023

Author

Pia Benthien

4 min read

We recap the most significant artificial intelligence (AI) industry updates from June, including exciting firsts for the booming AI healthcare sector, AI-influenced shifts at the workplace, and statistics and new research that signal growing consumer scepticism.

Boosting Healthcare with AI-Aided Drug Discovery

According to a recent forecast, the value of the AI healthcare market is set to grow from $14.6bn in 2023 to $102.7bn by 2028 (MarketsandMarkets, 2023), bolstered by an influx of new AI-powered medtech start-ups. But with 60% of Americans expecting AI to either make no difference or cause worse healthcare outcomes, it’s critical for companies to lead with transparency and trust when it comes to machine-assisted medicine (Pew Research Center, 2023). See Bleeding-Edge AI in Advancing MedTech for more.
Google Cloud is partnering with leading US hospital Mayo Clinic to provide American healthcare professionals with a generative AI-backed search tool that can locate electronic health records more efficiently. Using a simple prompt, doctors can quickly find information on medical histories and lab results, saving them valuable time that can be better spent treating patients.
Hong Kong start-up Insilico Medicine has entered human trials for a first-of-its-kind lung drug that was discovered and designed using AI. The drug is for a chronic lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which can lead to death if untreated. See AI Meets Healthcare in EmTech Digital 2023: Supercharging Artificial Intelligence for more drug discovery examples.

According to a recent forecast, the value of the AI healthcare market is set to grow from $14.6bn in 2023 to $102.7bn by 2028 (MarketsandMarkets, 2023), bolstered by an influx of new AI-powered medtech start-ups. But with 60% of Americans expecting AI to either make no difference or cause worse healthcare outcomes, it’s critical for companies to lead with transparency and trust when it comes to machine-assisted medicine (Pew Research Center, 2023). See Bleeding-Edge AI in Advancing MedTech for more.
Google Cloud is partnering with leading US hospital Mayo Clinic to provide American healthcare professionals with a generative AI-backed search tool that can locate electronic health records more efficiently. Using a simple prompt, doctors can quickly find information on medical histories and lab results, saving them valuable time that can be better spent treating patients.
Hong Kong start-up Insilico Medicine has entered human trials for a first-of-its-kind lung drug that was discovered and designed using AI. The drug is for a chronic lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which can lead to death if untreated. See AI Meets Healthcare in EmTech Digital 2023: Supercharging Artificial Intelligence for more drug discovery examples.

Learning to Work with New Tools

Ikea’s AI chatbot assistant, Billie, is fielding an increasing amount of customer inquiries: up to 47% of all call centre requests are now handled by the bot. This caused the company to reskill many of its call centre employees as “interior designers” – workers who conduct video calls with customers and offer creative inspiration and tips on how to decorate their Ikea-furnished spaces. It’s a move that forecasts the broader shift towards employee retraining programmes, designed to enhance human skills and abilities that can’t be emulated or replaced by robots.
The Automated Employment Decision Tool law has come into effect in New York City. It requires employers to inform job seekers if they’re using AI in their hiring process and to provide information on how applicants’ data is being collected and analysed. Companies will also have to submit to annual audits to prove their systems don’t reinforce biases. See Brand-New Government Initiatives in Viva Technology for more recent regulatory updates.

Ikea’s AI chatbot assistant, Billie, is fielding an increasing amount of customer inquiries: up to 47% of all call centre requests are now handled by the bot. This caused the company to reskill many of its call centre employees as “interior designers” – workers who conduct video calls with customers and offer creative inspiration and tips on how to decorate their Ikea-furnished spaces. It’s a move that forecasts the broader shift towards employee retraining programmes, designed to enhance human skills and abilities that can’t be emulated or replaced by robots.
The Automated Employment Decision Tool law has come into effect in New York City. It requires employers to inform job seekers if they’re using AI in their hiring process and to provide information on how applicants’ data is being collected and analysed. Companies will also have to submit to annual audits to prove their systems don’t reinforce biases. See Brand-New Government Initiatives in Viva Technology for more recent regulatory updates.

Interpreting Shifting Consumer Preferences

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has seen the first decline in users since its launch: the number of visitors to its website decreased by 9.7% in June, compared with the month before, signalling that ChatGPT’s popularity may have already peaked. This could be due to a vast range of other AI tools flooding the market (including ChatGPT plug-ins) or because initial AI hype is losing steam as the industry matures. Nonetheless, it was one of the top 20 most-viewed sites in the world, attracting 63 billion visitors in June.
According to a new study, there’s some evidence to suggest that people are more likely to trust misinformation generated and disseminated by AI than misinformation spread by humans, dampening efforts to demonstrate AI’s trustworthiness to consumers. This shows that regulatory action will be crucial in ensuring responsible use and trust in AI.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has seen the first decline in users since its launch: the number of visitors to its website decreased by 9.7% in June, compared with the month before, signalling that ChatGPT’s popularity may have already peaked. This could be due to a vast range of other AI tools flooding the market (including ChatGPT plug-ins) or because initial AI hype is losing steam as the industry matures. Nonetheless, it was one of the top 20 most-viewed sites in the world, attracting 63 billion visitors in June.
According to a new study, there’s some evidence to suggest that people are more likely to trust misinformation generated and disseminated by AI than misinformation spread by humans, dampening efforts to demonstrate AI’s trustworthiness to consumers. This shows that regulatory action will be crucial in ensuring responsible use and trust in AI.