AI plans from Microsoft, Google spur more interest across tech sector
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Market interest in artificial intelligence technology remained high this week, with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) taking much of the spotlight, and getting a mixed bag of reaction to the company giving details of its new AI and search initiatives.
On Thursday, Google (GOOG) tried to pull out all the stops for its AI initiatives with a company event in Paris. The highlight of Google's (GOOG) gathering was the unveiling of a "multisearch" feature that lets people use text or images to perform searches on their mobile devices. Google (GOOG) also demonstrated updates and improvements in its iOS Translate app and its Google Maps function. The company's Multisearch feature is powered by Google's (GOOG) Multitask Unified Model AI technology, also known as MUM.
However, despite all of Google's (GOOG) AI plans, Wall Street wasn't getting on the bandwagon.
On Wednesday, Google's (GOOG) parent company, Alphabet, saw its shares slump as much as 8% as several industry analysts said the company is losing the AI public relations battle to Microsoft.
This was as Google (GOOG) launched Bard, its AI chatbot that is designed to compete against Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and its new multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI. Microsoft (MSFT) dove into the AI game in a big way recently by saying it would incorporate ChatGPT into its Azure cloud offering, and AI with its Bing search engine.
Analyst Colin Sebastian, of Baird, said that Google (GOOG) has "a lot more to lose than gain" if its rushes its AI products out to market too soon. Sebastian also said that Microsoft (MSFT) is "winning" the early AI game.
But, as the week went on, the back-and-forth over all the new AI efforts showed who is in the technology driver's seat is likely to remain a matter of personal opinion.
For example, Microsoft (MSFT) got a boost as analysts sang the praises of its AI-powered Bing search engine, and Edge web browser. Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turin said Microsoft (MSFT) AI "substantially improves" the quality and relevancy of search queries.
Meanwhile, even with Alphabet (GOOG) taking a hit this week, the company still got so positive views from industry analysts, with Brian Nowak, of Morgan Stanley, said, "The AI race is on."

It wasn't all just Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) on the AI battlefront this week. 
Chip companies such as Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Applied Materials (AMAT) got a boost, largely on anticipation that all the new attention and investments in AI could lead to a boom in business for the semiconductor sector. 
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) also got a lift due to its role in the market for chips used in satellite communications, and the company instituting a $2B stock buyback.
C3.ai (NYSE:AI), which actually has "AI" in its name, was among the smaller AI companies that saw its shares perform strongly during the week. Other AI-related stocks that benefitted from the growing interest in AI were SoundHound AI (SOUN) and BigBear.ai (BBAI).
And by the end of the week, Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said that the AI efforts of Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) should benefit from the company's "most-valuable asset", it massive user base.