Hello and welcome. You are listening to Patrick Boyle on Finance, a podcast exploring ideas from quantitative finance,

examining events occurring in markets right now and financial history to see what lessons can be taken away,

including interviews with some of the most interesting people in the world of finance. To learn more about the podcast, visit

onfinance.org.

Between 1998 and 1999, 147 U.S. listed companies changed their names to include dot com, dot net,

or the word internet.

Many of these companies' core businesses were not internet related.

It didn't really matter.

Concerned with all of these announcements, the director of the SEC's Investor Education Office

warned investors not to just invest in a name, saying, that's just asking for losses.

This April, the director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement noted in a conference speech

that there was immense investor interest in artificial intelligence and that fake AI or AI

washing has the potential to mislead investors,

harms consumers and violates federal securities laws.

Fact said shows that 199 of the S&P 500 companies mentioned AI on their first quarter earnings

calls. This is the highest number of mentions on record, with the prior record having been said

in 2023.

Of course, many of these firms will actually have an AI strategy.

Many will have been using AI for decades, but it does appear to be the buzzword of 2023 and 2024, having replaced

blockchain.

AI is of course a real thing, and it's not really all that new.

It is however new in things like TVs, refrigerators, bird feeders, shoes and dog bowls. And I'm not saying that the AI dog bowl

...