As the Artificial Intelligence war heats up, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT taking the internet by storm in 2022 and other players like Google and Meta rushing to catch up, financial institutions like Bank of America weigh in on the side of Artificial Intelligence. In a note to clients viewed by CNBC and other outlets on February 28, BofA equity strategist Haim Israel boasted about AI being of the top trends to watch and invest in for the year.

According to the firm, the speed with which Artificial Intelligence is getting embedded in people’s lives could be another “iPhone moment.” BofA compared “ChatGPT-like technology revolutionizing AI” to how the iPhone led to an explosion in the use of smartphones and phone apps. The note read, “We are at a defining moment like the internet in the ’90s where Artificial Intelligence is moving towards mass adoption with large language models like ChatGPT finally enabling us to fully capitalize on the data revolution.”

With AI at the apparent forefront of its trend forecasting, the financial institution highlighted, “If data is the new oil, then AI is the new electricity.” The report by Bank of America cited four reasons why ChatGPT-like technology is pushing AI forward. It said that ChatGPT democratizes data by making it more accessible to everyone. According to the report, ChatCPT spurred technological development at “warp speed, jumping 1,900 times in size in less than four years, and could jump a further 10-fold or more in just a couple of months.” ChatGPT also has numerous use cases.

Beyond just revolutionizing the use of technology, Bank of America talks about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the global economy. It predicts that ”AI can capitalize on data that could boost the world economy by up to $15.7 trillion by 2030 and the global AI market software, hardware, and services could reach $900 billion by 2026.”

Praise for Artificial intelligence is being sung amidst a dizzying number of developments in the space. There have also been several instances of chatbots acting out. According to CNN, just last week, JP Morgan banned the use of ChatGPT at work, citing “compliance reasons.” U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley’s stance on ChatCPT was even more strict. Morgan Stanley analysts led by Shawn Kim wrote on February 22, ”when we talk of the high-accuracy task, it is worth mentioning that ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates and can generate answers that are seemingly convincing, but are wrong.”

According to the New York Times, in a bid to cut short conversations before Bing AI becomes confused, Microsoft is considering imposing restrictions on how long people can interact with Bing’s AI. Google’s Bard, yet to be launched, is being called out for producing factually inaccurate answers in a public demo on February 7, costing the company billions of dollars. The promise of ChatGPT-like technology is also threatening jobs in some industries due to its low cost, efficiency, and ease of use.