经济学人双语精读：企业对生成式人工智能的实际使用情况如何

2024年6月22日 文摘

相见恨晚的英语公众号：田间小站

Meet your new copilot
见见您的新副手

  • copilot （飞机的）副驾驶员，缩写词为coplt

How businesses are actually using generative AI
企业对生成式人工智能的实际使用情况如何

Some experiments with chatbots are more useful than others
一些运用聊天机器人的尝试比其他的更有用

IT HAS BEEN nearly a year since OpenAI released GPT-4, its most sophisticated artificial-intelligence model and the brain-of-sorts behind ChatGPT, its groundbreaking robot conversationalist. In that time the market capitalisation of America’s technology industry, broadly defined, has risen by half, creating $6trn in shareholder value. For some tech firms, growing revenue is starting to match sky-high share prices. On February 21st Nvidia, which designs chips used to train and run models like GPT-4, reported bumper fourth-quarter results, sending its market value towards $2trn. AI mania has also lifted the share prices of other tech giants, including Alphabet (Google’s corporate parent), Amazon and Microsoft, which are spending big on developing the technology.
距OpenAI发布GPT-4已将近一年，GPT-4是其最先进的人工智能模型，也是其开创性的聊天机器人ChatGPT背后的机器大脑。在那段时间里，广义上的美国科技业的市值增长了一半，创造了6万亿美元的股东价值。对于一些科技公司来说，不断增长的收入开始与天价股价相匹配。2月21日，设计芯片供训练和运行GPT-4等模型的英伟达公布了出色的第四季度业绩，将其市值推至近2万亿美元。AI热潮也推高了其他科技巨头的股价，包括Alphabet（谷歌的母公司）、亚马逊和微软，它们正在砸巨资开发这项技术。

  • bumper 作名词指“特大的或丰盛的东西”，进而将其用作形容词表示“特大的、丰盛的”，常作褒义词使用且一般仅用在名词前（参见：熟词僻义 | bumper 从碰碰车到大丰收）
  • mania 表示“狂热、热衷”，常用搭配 mania (for sth/for doing sth) 表示某种许多人共有的强烈欲望、极大热情，多指一种过分或不合理的欲望或热情（参见：小词详解 | mania）

At the same time, big tech’s sales of AI software remain small. In the past year AI has accounted for only about a fifth of the growth in revenues at Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-computing division, and related services. Alphabet and Amazon do not reveal their AI-related sales, but analysts suspect they are lower than those of Microsoft. For the AI stockmarket boom to endure, these firms will at some point need to make serious money from selling their services to clients. Businesses across the world, from banks and consultancies to film studios, have to start using ChatGPT-like tools on a large scale. When it comes to real-world adoption of such “generative” AI, companies have trodden gingerly. Yet even these baby steps hint at the changing nature of white-collar work.
与此同时，科技巨头卖出的AI软件仍然不多。过去一年里，AI仅贡献了微软云计算部门Azure和相关服务收入增长的五分之一左右。Alphabet和亚马逊没有透露其与AI相关的销售额，但分析师怀疑都要低于微软。要想让AI带来的股市繁荣持续下去，这些公司到了某个时间点将必须要能从向客户出售相应服务中赚到可观的收入。从银行和咨询公司到电影制片厂，世界各地的企业都必须开始大规模使用类似ChatGPT的工具。对于在现实世界里应用这种“生成式”AI，各类公司小心翼翼地迈出了步子。但即使是这些婴儿学步也暗示了白领工作的性质在发生变化。