Bitcoin did it better: Google’s interest in AI searches peaks

Google Trends data shows that in 2017, Bitcoin still outperformed AI in terms of popularity, despite AI being the talk of the town. It’s a very different story in China.

Google search interest in the word “AI” has increased globally, although it hasn’t yet surpassed the top of the 2017 Bitcoin BTC tickers down $27,193 hysteria, according to the statistics.

Over the past few months, artificial intelligence has dominated news stories, with some arguing that it is the newest “tech fad” following cryptocurrency and the metaverse.

OpenAI leaders most recently issued a warning in a blog post on May 23 stating that within the next ten years, AI will surpass expert skill level in “most domains” and be as productive as “one of today’s largest corporations.”

However, even while search interest for AI in the United States and globally has risen to a fever pitch, it is still below the peak search interest for Bitcoin, which was 100 in December 2017, when Bitcoin was close to its then-high of $20,000.

AI was “still far below the absolute hype of Bitcoin,” according to Mark Schilsky, an Alliance Bernstein technology analyst, who made the observation on May 31, according to a Business Insider story. His investigation concentrated mainly on search trends in the United States.

Schilisky found that the peak search volume for “Bitcoin” is higher than the top search volume for AI so far by comparing the three “buzziest segments of the tech industry” during the previous ten years: “AI,” “metaverse,” and “Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin, according to China?

The outcomes, however, are very different in China, where Google search is constrained and cryptocurrencies are illegal. The preferred search engine in the nation is Baidu.

Since May 2013, China’s Google users have regularly shown greater monthly search interest for AI than for Bitcoin, according to Google Trends.

Only three times during the past ten years, when big Bitcoin-related events were taking place, did Chinese AI searches surpass Bitcoin.

In November 2013, at the same time that it hit its then-highest price of $300 on the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, Bitcoin overtook AI as the most popular search term in China for the first time.

When Bitcoin reached highs of around $20,000 in December 2017, it once again achieved the top spot in search attention.

The third and most recent incident occurred in February 2021, when Bitcoin climbed past $43,000 as a result of the news that Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and its decision to begin accepting Bitcoin payments.

After the country outlawed cryptocurrencies in 2021, Cointelegraph’s staff in China noticed that searches for a number of significant cryptocurrency exchanges were turning up nothing.

The number of “AI” searches in China reached an all-time high of 100 in April 2023. The search score right now is about 94.

A state-sponsored Chinese AI business named Flytek said in May that it would introduce “Spark Model,” an AI system intended to directly compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

At a conference on May 30, Chinese authorities emphasised the necessity of making “dedicated efforts to safeguard political security and improve the security governance of internet data and artificial intelligence.” A local media outlet reported the following:

“We must be ready to withstand the major test of high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms. We must be prepared for worst-case and extreme scenarios.”