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An artificial-intelligence frenzy has swept through the market in recent months. The viral success of ChatGPT, and

Microsoft

and Google-parent

Alphabet

throwing their financial might behind AI technologies, is being taken as a pivotal moment. 

The AI craze was one of the main trends on show at Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile and communications trade show, which was held in Barcelona this week. With the show having increasingly widened beyond its core focus on wireless technology, a variety of exhibitors and executives showed off their different concepts of AI. 

Here’s a look at some of the key visions of AI that were on show: 

AI on your phone: Chip maker

Qualcomm

(ticker: QCOM) caught the eye with its demonstration of a generative AI program, text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion, running solely on a smartphone, without any connection to the internet or use of cloud processing. While it involved heavy optimization of the model, which might limit short-term commercial uses, it suggests Qualcomm is aiming to share in some of the excitement around chipmaking peer

Nvidia

(NVDA) which has become a stock-market favorite for the potential use of its processors for AI purposes. 

“We are able to do incredibly powerful on-device artificial intelligence. That really changes the game, between what’s happening on device, what’s happening on the cloud,” Qualcomm’s senior vice president of engineering John Smee told Barron’s on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress. 

AI for defense:

Lockheed Martin

(LMT) CEO James Taiclet gave a keynote presentation which focused heavily on potential uses for AI as a tool in defense and climate-protection technology. Lockheed said last month that one of its training aircraft was flown by an “artificial intelligence agent” for more than 17 hours, representing the first time AI engaged on a tactical aircraft. However, Taiclet said the company would always have a human decision maker in charge. 

“The value of AI in all of our missions for national defense and for climate protection are really to take huge amounts of data and turn it into useful information for human decision makers,” Taiclet said in his speech.

AI for telecoms: Barron’s covered the AI-powered offerings of Microsoft and Google for the telecoms industry in a separate story, as all three tech companies fight for share in cloud computing. Efficiency and better use of customer data are among the key aims.

Ericsson
’s
(ERIC) Chief Financial Officer Carl Mellander told Barron’s that the telecoms-equipment provider was using machine learning and AI technology in its managed-services business to predict network problems.

AI for everything: No company went as all-in on the theme of AI as South Korea’s

SK Telecom

(SKM), which was heavily pushing its ‘AI to Everywhere’ program of technologies for everything from self-driving cars to the metaverse. Its most eye-catching suggestion was that it intends a global push for A., or A-dot, its own AI service with chatbot features. The company said the service has one million subscribers in South Korea within just nine months of its launch.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com