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In the sport of long-distance running, there is something called a corral start. The idea is to group people with similar paces so that the beginning of the race is less congested.

OpenAI’s  ChatGPT has continued to see a dip in web traffic, raising concerns that the AI (Artificial Intelligence) chatbot's craze could be going down. According to Similarweb ( NYSE:SMWB ), a digital data and analytics company, the web traffic to chat.openai.com dropped for the third consecutive month after peaking in May 2023. Nonetheless, the drop could be due to the schools being closed for the summer, thus alleviating concerns about its growth. Worldwide traffic to ChatGPT fell 9.7% in June. This was followed by a 9.6% decline in traffic in July. However, trends improved in August, when worldwide traffic decreased by only 3%. In the U.S., web visits dropped by 10% in May, 15% in June, and 4% in July. Nonetheless, it was up 0.4% in August.  It's worth noting that ChatGPT remains one of the largest websites globally, attracting approximately 1.4 billion visits in August. Comparatively, Microsoft’s ( NASDAQ:MSFT ) Bing search engine received 1.2 billion visits. Although traffic patterns have indicated some stability in the United States, it remains uncertain whether growth will pick up again in the coming months. Meanwhile, OpenAI focuses on getting enterprise customers and has introduced the business version of ChatGPT that will rival Microsoft’s Bing Chat Enterprise. Moreover, Alphabet ( NASDAQ:GOOGL )( NASDAQ:GOOG )-owned  Google also unveiled a series of AI-powered features across its portfolio of products to tap enterprises. As ChatGPT, MSFT, and Google compete to grow business users, let’s look at what the Street recommends about their shares. Is Alphabet a Buy or Sell Stock? Analysts remain upbeat about Alphabet stock due to the continued strength of its Search business. In addition, the momentum in the Cloud business, expected recovery in ad spending, reduction in costs, and growing interest in Google’s AI-optimized infrastructure will help drive its  revenue and earnings and support its stock price.  Alphabet stock has received 31 Buy recommendations from 36 analysts covering it. Meanwhile, the rest have a Hold recommendation. Overall, it has a Strong Buy consensus rating. Analysts’ average 12-month price target of $150.67 implies an upside potential of 11.39% from current levels. What is the Price Target for Microsoft? Analysts have an average price target of $390.97 on  Microsoft stock. This implies 18.51% upside potential from current levels.  Wall Street analysts maintain a bullish outlook on MSFT stock. The integration of AI into its products and investments in cloud infrastructure to capitalize on AI demand bode well for future growth and would  drive its financials. It has a Strong Buy consensus rating, reflecting 30 Buy, two Hold, and one Sell recommendations. Disclosure

The tech sector is back in 2023, riding the excitement regarding AI and other technological advances to massive gains. The Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF ( NYSEARCA:XLK) , which invests in the technology sector of the S&P 500 ( SPX ), has returned a scintillating 42.6% year-to-date. But this type of stellar performance is nothing new for this top tech ETF, which has been rewarding its investors with excellent returns for many years. So, let’s take a look at this long-term winner that is still attractive.   Stellar Track Record XLK has established itself as a consistent, long-term winner. How good has XLK’s performance been over the years?  As of the end of the most recent quarter, XLK put up an impressive annualized total return of 19.5% over the past three years. Zooming out to five years and 10 years, the fund has managed to return over 20% on an annualized basis over each time frame, with outstanding total annualized returns of 21.5% over the past five years and 20.7% over the past 10 years. These returns are great on their own accord, but how do they stack up against the broader market over the long term? As of the end of the most recent quarter, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( NYSEARCA:VOO) , a good proxy for the S&P 500, returned 14.6% on an annualized basis over the past three years. Over the past five years, it has returned 12.3% on an annualized basis, and over the past 10 years, it has posted an annualized return of 12.8%. These are solid returns, but XLK’s returns over each of the three time frames are superior, putting it among one of the rare ETFs that can say it has decisively beaten the market over the long run. A Cost-Effective Option XLK has given investors a market-beating performance over the past decade, and it does so for a very reasonable price, with an expense ratio of just 0.10%. This means that an investor putting $10,000 into XLK today would pay just $10 in fees in year one. Assuming the ETF returns 5% per year going forward and the fee remains 0.10%, this same investor would pay a reasonable $128 in fees over the course of the next 10 years.  It's worth noting that XLK's expense ratio is significantly lower than that of the Invesco QQQ Trust ( NASDAQ:QQQ) , the largest and most popular tech-centric ETF, which charges a still-reasonable 0.20%.   XLK's Holdings  XLK sports 67 holdings, covering the technology sector of the S&P 500. Below, you’ll find an overview of XLK’s top 10 holdings from TipRanks’ holdings tool. Despite the fact that it has 67 holdings, this is a fairly concentrated fund, as its top 10 holdings account for 69.5% of assets, and its top two holdings, Apple ( NASDAQ:AAPL ) and Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT ), combine to make up more than 44%. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be aware that XLK has a lot of exposure to these two stocks.  Part of the reason that XLK has outperformed the market over the years is that its top holdings include some of the most innovative companies in the U.S. market (not to mention globally), creating the products, technologies, and applications that have revolutionized the way many people work and live their day-to-day lives. This is true whether it’s consumer-facing products from the likes of Apple and Microsoft, enterprise-facing products from Adobe ( NASDAQ:ADBE ), Salesforce ( NYSE:CRM ) and Oracle ( NYSE:ORCL ), or the semiconductor companies that make many of these applications possible, like Nivida ( NASDAQ:NVDA ), Broadcom ( NASDAQ:AVGO ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( NASDAQ:AMD ).  You may notice that several big names are conspicuously absent from XLK’s portfolio. The likes of Amazon ( NASDAQ:AMZN ), Meta Platforms ( NASDAQ:META ), Alphabet ( NASDAQ:GOOG ) ( NASDAQ:GOOGL ), and Tesla ( NASDAQ:TSLA ), are not part of XLK’s portfolio. This is because while we often think of them as tech stocks, the S&P index classifies Meta Platforms and Alphabet within communications services, and they can be found within the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund ( NYSEARCA:XLC) . Meanwhile, Amazon and Tesla are classified as consumer discretionary companies and can be found within the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SDPR Fund ( NYSEARCA:XLY) , where they combine to make up more than 40% of the fund’s holdings. An Outperform Smart Score Rating TipRanks’ Smart Score system rates XLK’s top holdings highly. The Smart Score is a proprietary quantitative stock scoring system created by TipRanks. It gives stocks a score from 1 to 10 based on eight market key factors. A score of 8 or above is equivalent to an Outperform rating. As you can see in the table above, an impressive eight out of XLK’s top 10 holdings have Outperform-equivalent Smart Scores of 8 or higher. XLK itself features an Outperform-equivalent ETF Smart Score of 9.  Is XLK Stock a Buy, According to Analysts?  Turning to Wall Street, XLK earns a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 55 Buys, 12 Holds, and no Sell ratings assigned in the past three months. The average XLK stock price target of $199.81 implies 15.9% upside potential. Looking Ahead XLK has put up a banner performance in 2023. Still, this outstanding performance is nothing new -- it is one of the rare ETFs that has soundly beaten the broader market over a long period of time. The ETF enjoys favorable views from analysts and an excellent rating from TipRanks’ Smart Score System. However, investors should be aware that while XLK owns many of today’s tech companies, it doesn’t own some of the archetypical technology stocks like Meta Platforms or Amazon, as these are grouped into different sectors by the S&P. Nevertheless, XLK’s investor-friendly expense ratio, impeccable track record, and strong portfolio of top technology companies make it look like a solid long-term bet.  Disclosure

Australia will make search engines like Google and Bing take steps to prevent the sharing of child sexual abuse material created by artificial intelligence, the country's internet regulator said on Friday.

Australia will make search engines like Google and Bing take steps to prevent the sharing of child sexual abuse material created by artificial intelligence, the country's internet regulator said on Friday.

Zoom Video Communications has met with regulators from the United States, European Union and other jurisdictions to outline concerns about Microsoft's alleged anti-competitive behavior, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

Leading alcoholic beverage maker Anheuser-Busch InBev ( NYSE:BUD ) has been under pressure due to the severe backlash it faced when transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney promoted its highly popular Bud Light beer brand on her social media. Despite the controversy, Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT ) co-founder Bill Gates purchased 1.7 million BUD shares for $96.6 million in Q2 2023 via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust (confirmed by a 13-F SEC filing this week). While BUD shares have declined about 7% year-to-date, most Wall Street analysts remain bullish on the stock and see an attractive upside from current levels. BUD’s Q2 2023 Results Reflect Resilience The U.S. sales of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light brand have slumped since the controversy over the marketing campaign with the transgender influencer began in April. The controversy knocked off Bud Light as the top-selling beer brand in the U.S., making way for Constellation Brands' ( NYSE:STZ ) Mexican brand Modelo Especial. The backlash also impacted sales of AB InBev’s other brands in the U.S. Despite the decline in the U.S. volumes, AB InBev managed to beat analysts’ Q2 2023 earnings expectations. The company’s second-quarter underlying earnings per share (EPS) declined to $0.72 from $0.73 in the prior-year quarter, but surpassed analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.68. Revenue grew 7.2% to $15.1 billion, as higher prices more than offset the 1.4% drop in volumes. The decline in U.S. volumes was partially offset by the strength in Asia Pacific. However, the top line fell short of the Street’s expectation of $15.4 billion.         Wall Street Remains Bullish on BUD Stock Reacting to the Q2 2023 results announced in early August, RBC analyst James Edwardes Jones said, “Given Bud Light’s travails this is an impressive demonstration of AB InBev’s resilience and diversification.” Similarly, on August 16, Deutsche Bank analyst Mitch Collett, who has a Buy rating on BUD stock, highlighted the strength in the company’s global business, which offset the weakness in U.S. sales. The analyst noted that an August survey of U.S. consumers indicated notable signs of improvement for the Bud Light brand. Collett said that the proportion of beer drinkers who are no longer buying the Bud Light brand reduced by 190 basis points to 19% in August compared to July. Further, the percentage of consumers buying less Bud Light reduced by 170 basis points. Meanwhile, the percentage of beer drinkers buying more increased by 320 basis points. Collett finds BUD stock’s valuation attractive and expects a rebound in the Bud Light brand next year.   Looking ahead, the company is focused on expanding its premium brands, Beyond Beer portfolio, strengthening its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel, and optimizing business through disciplined expense management and efficient allocation of resources. Last month, AB InBev sold eight beer brands to cannabis company Tilray ( NASDAQ:TLRY ) in an $85 million deal. The deal is expected to strengthen Tilray’s position in the U.S. craft beer market. While AB InBev continues to optimize its portfolio, the company assured that craft beer remains a key aspect of its growth strategy to enhance its position in the premium beer segment. Is BUD a Good Stock to Buy Now? Wall Street’s Strong Buy consensus rating on BUD stock is based on six Buys and two Holds. The average price target of $68.91 implies about 23% upside. Conclusion Several analysts expect Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light beer brand to recover once the controversy fades in the U.S. market. Meanwhile, the strength in the company’s key markets outside North America is expected to drive top-line growth. The recent purchase of BUD shares by Bill Gates’ foundation trust has brought the focus back on the company’s strengths. As per TipRanks’ Hedge Fund Trading Activity Tool, hedge funds have a Very Positive confidence signal on BUD stock and increased their holdings by 2 million shares in the last quarter.        Disclosure 

C3.ai ( NYSE:AI ) just reaffirmed its commitment to developing generative  artificial intelligence (AI) products, but the market is choosing to focus on near-term profitability. That's the wrong way to interpret C3.ai's recent press release, in my opinion, and I'm bullish on AI stock despite many traders' negative reactions today. C3.ai is headquartered in California, and the company provides AI-empowered software products. Unlike Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT ), which invested in OpenAI's ChatGPT generative AI chatbot technology, C3.ai focuses entirely on AI. Consequently, AI stock is a pure play on the future of machine learning technology. However, even though AI is the main topic of conversation in 2023, the market certainly didn't favor C3.ai today. So, let's dive in and see what some stock traders might find objectionable about C3.ai and then determine if there's a prime dip-buying opportunity here. A Double-Dose of C3.ai Press Releases Here's something that hardly anyone expected. After the market closed yesterday, and just a few minutes before C3.ai published its quarterly results, the company announced a new suite of generative AI products. Clearly, there must be something special about this product lineup if it deserved a separate press release yesterday. It's called the C3 Generative AI Suite, and it includes "28 new domain-specific generative AI offerings." Businesses in the oil and gas, utilities, aerospace and defense, financial services, telecommunications, and other fields can benefit from C3.ai's sector-specific generative AI solutions. I was actually watching the AI stock price in after-hours trading yesterday, and it jumped a couple of percentage points immediately after the C3 Generative AI Suite announcement. For a moment, I had assumed that the market was reacting to a positive quarterly earnings report, but that report wasn't released yet. Then, just a few minutes later, C3.ai published its financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. It's fascinating to watch stock prices move after earnings releases; you can almost hear financial traders reading it from top to bottom and reacting accordingly. Delayed Profit Prospects Rattle C3.ai Stockholders AI stock actually jumped for a hot minute, probably because traders were relieved to find out that C3.ai posted top- and bottom-line quarterly beats. Specifically, C3.ai's Fiscal Q1-2024 revenue grew by 10.8% year-over-year to $72.36 million, beating the consensus estimate by $0.76 million. Furthermore, C3.ai continued its impeccable track record of quarterly EPS beats. This time around, Wall Street expected C3.ai to report a quarterly loss of $0.17 per share, but the actual result was a loss of only $0.09 per share. There's really nothing objectionable in those results, wouldn't you agree? Yet, investors are forward-looking, and they didn't like C3.ai's announcement that it plans "to invest in lead generation, branding, market awareness, and customer success related to our Generative AI solutions." As a result, while C3.ai's management "still expect to be cash positive in Q4 FY 24 and in FY 25," the company "will be investing in our Generative AI solutions and at this time do not expect to be non-GAAP profitable in Q4 FY 24." In other words, C3.ai is delaying its path to profitability for a while. I tend to see the glass as half-full in this situation, even if many stock traders are pessimistic. Sure, C3.ai will have to spend money in the near term in order to develop best-in-class generative AI products. Unfortunately, some market participants are evidently shortsighted and can't tolerate pain today for gains later on. Besides, C3.ai can still achieve profitability at some point as well as positive cash flow during the coming quarters. So, if you're willing to play the long game, there's no need to rule out C3.ai. Is AI Stock a Buy, According to Analysts? On TipRanks, AI stock comes in as a Strong Buy based on two Buys, six Holds, and four Sell ratings assigned by analysts in the past three months. The average C3.ai price target is $27.11, implying 1.9% downside potential. If you’re wondering which analyst you should follow if you want to buy and sell AI stock, the most profitable analyst covering the stock (on a one-year timeframe) is  Patrick Walravens of JMP Securities, with an average return of 11.09% per rating and a 54% success rate. Click on the image below to learn more. Conclusion: Should You Consider C3.ai Stock? I tend to view today's C3.ai stock drop as an overreaction and possibly even a wrong reaction. C3.ai's management understands that new product investment is costly now but can lead to powerful revenue streams later on. Apparently, today's short-term stock traders weren't particularly interested in C3.ai's long-term prospects. That's not a problem at all, as C3.ai's future investments in generative AI solutions could boost the company's financials in 2024 and beyond. Hence, I believe it makes sense to consider AI stock if you're prepared to hold the shares for at least a couple of years. Disclosure

OpenAI's ChatGPT, the wildly popular artificial intelligence chatbot launched in November, saw monthly website visits decline for the third month in a row in August, though there are signs the decline is coming to an end, according to analytics firm Similarweb.

A Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin was sentenced on Thursday to nine years in a U.S. prison after being convicted of participating in a $93 million insider-trading scheme involving hacked secret earnings information about multiple companies.

Whether you're looking for high-powered AI growth potential or reliable dividend income, there's no shortage of reasons to add outperforming MSFT shares to your portfolio at current levels.

Microsoft will pay legal damages on behalf of customers using its artificial intelligence (AI) products if they are sued for copyright infringement for the output generated by such systems, the company said on Thursday.

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly gaining precedence in our daily life. The pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend made these more important as we have become more dependent on technology. The growing accessibil

A Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin was sentenced on Thursday to nine years in a U.S. prison after being convicted of participating in a $93 million insider-trading scheme involving hacked secret earnings information about multiple companies.

Meta Platforms META is set to discontinue the dedicated News tab on Facebook in some European countries. The company will stop offering this feature in the United Kingdom, France and Germany by December 2023. This move is aimed at

Microsoft researchers said on Thursday they found what they believe is a network of fake, Chinese-controlled social media accounts seeking to influence U.S. voters by using artificial intelligence.

Microsoft researchers said on Thursday they found what they believe is a network of fake, Chinese-controlled social media accounts seeking to influence U.S. voters by using artificial intelligence.

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