Another Wrong Call In The Making? Cathie Wood Predicts 50% Annual GDP Growth In 12 Years From Artificial General Intelligence

When ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood believes in something, better be sure she will hype it up–even if it risks another wrong call. The tech bull said the country’s gross domestic product could grow up to 50% annually in just 12 years, thanks to artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Replying to a tweet by ARK Invest’s own Director for Research Brett Winton, Wood said that her investment firm “must share more of [its] research about AGI,” purportedly to shed light on how the field could “accelerate growth in GDP.” Winton’s tweet itself described the potential through the supposed decline in the estimated time to achieve AGI.

The investment firm’s Big Ideas 2022 report released earlier this year was more bullish on the field, saying the industry could grow as big as US$87 trillion dollars by 2030.

But Twitter users following the thread are calling the bluff, with some paralleling the prediction to Wood’s wrong call on the oil price outlook.

Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK), deemed the “worst-performing fund” in Q1 2022 by analytics firm Morningstar, has also been tagged in the discussion.

This is not Wood’s first bullish call this year. Also from the investment firm’s Big Ideas 2022 report, the fund manager’s bullish target for the price of bitcoin is over US$1 million per coin in 2030, which calls the computation into question.

The discussion on AGI comes on the heels of Google’s DeepMind Research Director Dr. Nando de Freitas’s tweet that human-level artificial intelligence is close to being achieved.

“My opinion: It’s all about scale now! The game is over!” said Dr. de Freitas.

DeepMind is working on its AI system called Gato, trained to complete 604 tasks, including engaging in a dialogue and playing Atari games.

But when asked how far along would the AI be from passing a real Turing test–the prime determinant if a computer can demonstrate human intelligence–Dr. de Freitas believed it is “far still.”

Information for this briefing was found via Twitter, TechCrunch and the companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.