The year 2023 marked a turning point in Google search trends, revealing a growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) over terms such as "Bitcoin" and "crypto". Google Trends data highlights this shift, highlighting a significant evolution since ChatGPT's launch in November last year. Let's dive into the details to understand this digital revolution.
AI rules Google
Since 2020, search terms such as "Bitcoin" and occasionally "crypto" had managed to outperform searches for "AI". However, Google data shows that this trend began to reverse from August 2022. November 2022 marked a crucial point, with the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI, propelling searches for "AI" far beyond crypto-related terms.
Google Trends data for 2023 reveals that global interest in "AI" currently holds a score of 91, while Bitcoin stagnates at 22. This score assesses the proportion of a topic in relation to total searches on all topics.
The Bitcoin Surge and the AI Response
The results may seem predictable, given Bitcoin's market context. After suffering the after-effects of a bear market during the second half of 2021 and most of 2022, Bitcoin has gradually regained ground over the course of the current year. Although it began the year at $16,900, a far cry from its all-time high of $68,729 in November 2021, it has since risen by around 150%, reaching $43,400 at the time of writing.
Searches on Bitcoin attracted the most interest from El Salvador, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Brazil and Switzerland, according to data from Google Trends.
The Golden Year for AI
Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, has had an exceptional year in terms of developments. From fears about the loss of jobs to AI, the proliferation of "nude" AI-based services, to enthusiasm for new chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, Meta AI and GrokAI – the latter launched by tech mogul Elon Musk.
Data from Google Trends shows particular interest in AI from Vietnam, China, the Philippines and Myanmar.
A user of Crypto X, formerly Twitter, highlighted this trend in a December 26 post. One response suggested that the disparity might be due to the fact that Bitcoin and crypto are relatively old points of interest compared to AI, meaning that people have already widely searched for crypto-related terms in previous years.
