Bank of America Obsessed With AI, Says It's the "New Electricity"

"If data is the new oil, then AI is the new electricity."

BofA AIs

The financial industry's response to artificial intelligence has been all over the place. Now, Bank of America is weighing in very much on the side of the bots.

In a note to clients viewed by CNBC and other outlets, BofA equity strategist Haim Israel boasted that AI was one of its top trends to watch — and invest in — for the year, and used all kinds of hypey language to convince its clients.

"We are at a defining moment — like the internet in the '90s — where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving towards mass adoption," the client note reads, "with large language models like ChatGPT finally enabling us to fully capitalize on the data revolution."

Taking the comparison further, Israel added that software like OpenAI's game-changing ChatGPT will become an essential commodity.

"If data is the new oil," the strategist predicted, "then AI is the new electricity."

Hot and Cold

With AI at the apparent forefront of its trend forecasting, the financial institution highlighted multiple big tech stocks in a separate list of stocks to watch — but BofA's apparent pro-AI obsession does not seem to be shared by some of its competitors.

Just last week, JP Morgan went so far as to ban employees from using ChatGPT at work, citing "compliance concerns" per CNN's reporting.

Though its stance wasn't as strict as its compatriot's, Morgan Stanley reportedly is also concerned with the downsides of AI, too.

"When we talk of high-accuracy task," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note viewed by Insider last week, "it is worth mentioning that ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates and can generate answers that are seemingly convincing, but are actually wrong."

With AI making massive waves in the finance industry and everywhere else, it's not surprising that big banks are responding in different ways — though to be honest, these disparate reactions does suggest serious ambiguity in the new space.

More on ChatGPT and banks: Journalist Clones His Voice and Uses It to Break Into His Own Bank Account