Warren Buffett is known for not chasing the latest technology trend, preferring to invest within his “circle of competence.”
Greg Abel, who succeeded the legendary investor as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO at the start of this year, signaled he’s also cautious about jumping on any bandwagon during the company’s shareholder meeting on Saturday in Omaha.
Business Insider’s Theron Mohamed was watching from the press box of the CHI Health Center in Buffett’s hometown when Abel told the crowd that Berkshire wouldn’t be going all in on AI.
He struck a very different tone to tech executives such as Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who have committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars to win the AI race.
“We’re not going to do AI for the sake of AI,” Abel said, adding that the tech has to be “additive to our businesses.”
Berkshire’s new boss said the conglomerate’s subsidiaries would employ AI prudently, in areas where it creates genuine value.
Business Insider spoke to the CEOs of See’s Candies, Dairy Queen, Brooks Running, and Jazwares on Friday. They said their companies were embracing AI to different degrees, but were broadly positive about how it can save time and make workers more efficient.
The investment world is divided on the immense buzz around AI.
The likes of “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary and fund manager Ross Gerber have dismissed comparisons to the dot-com bubble, telling Business Insider that the tech is driving measurable productivity gains and generating enormous growth in profits.
In contrast, Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame and veteran investor Jeremy Grantham have warned that AI is a bubble of historic proportions that’s bound to burst with devastating effect.
