Let\u2019s reflect on 2024 and the impact it has had on healthcare and Artificial Intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n
I am neither a sociologist nor a historian, but my focus has been on healthcare for decades. As we highlighted in one of our last blogs of 2024, healthcare costs in America have now surpassed $5 trillion annually. I\u2019ve been in healthcare long before we crossed the $1 trillion threshold.<\/p>\n
The assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thomson was a historic moment in healthcare, one that may have a lasting impact. My thoughts are with his family and friends, and we\u2019ve written extensively about it. The incident also sparked a surge of American frustration, often expressed in viral and harmful ways. December 4, 2024, could become a day in history that healthcare will not forget.<\/p>\n
Arguably, the biggest news in the U.S. this year was the presidential election. While we\u2019re confident it will have a material impact on healthcare, we\u2019ll leave the political analysis to others.<\/p>\n
For me, the most significant story (excluding former President Trump) was the rise of Artificial Intelligence. The largest companies in America are pouring over $100 billion annually into AI. Looking back on the year, let\u2019s recap some of the big winners in AI, as headlines about the technology are everywhere.<\/p>\n
We can start with Larry Ellison. Oracle\u2019s enormous leap in market value (despite issues at Oracle Health, formerly Cerner) was largely due to their critical role in providing cloud services to Meta (formerly Facebook) and OpenAI, with substantial GPU support, mostly provided by Nvidia. Ellison\u2019s net worth increased by about $75 billion in 2024, as Oracle\u2019s stock surged over 60% this year.<\/p>\n
Since we\u2019re on the topic of Nvidia\u00ae, I regret not fully understanding the power of their GPUs earlier. I first became aware of them through my son, who heads the development of our electronic health record platform, PWeR\u00ae. At that time, Nvidia\u2019s stock was split and trading at around $1 per share, whereas today it\u2019s over $130. I didn\u2019t grasp how the combination of GPUs and Central Processing Units (CPUs) would revolutionize machine learning, but now it\u2019s clear how pivotal these chips have become for AI. Nvidia’s stock soared over 275% in 2024.<\/p>\n
Let me take a moment to explain CPUs and GPUs for those who may not be familiar.<\/p>\n
You can skip this if you\u2019re not interested.<\/p>\n
Central Processing Units (CPUs) \u2013 think of companies like Intel, AMD, IBM, ARM, Apple, Qualcomm, and Samsung \u2013 are general-purpose processors designed for handling a wide range of tasks with high precision. CPUs typically have a smaller number of high-performance cores (2 to 64), optimized for complex, sequential tasks like running operating systems, executing programs, and managing input\/output operations.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), especially those from Nvidia like the A100 and H100, are specialized processors designed for parallel processing. With thousands of smaller cores, GPUs excel at handling many tasks simultaneously, making them ideal for rendering graphics, performing matrix calculations, and accelerating workloads such as AI, data analysis, and scientific simulations. While GPUs lack the flexibility and single-threaded processing power of CPUs, they are far more efficient at high-throughput, parallel workloads.<\/p>\n
How CPUs and GPUs Work Together<\/p>\n
CPUs and GPUs work in tandem for maximum computational efficiency. The CPU handles the overall management of the system, running sequential tasks and making decisions, while the GPU accelerates compute-intensive tasks, like rendering graphics, training AI models, or processing large datasets. This collaboration allows for faster, more efficient computing, driving breakthroughs in areas like gaming, machine learning, and scientific research.<\/p>\n
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently told employees to \u201cgear up for a big 2025, the stakes are high.\u201d Google is such a large and diverse company that we can\u2019t solely attribute its 35% stock increase in 2024 to AI, but we believe a large part of it is due to AI investments. Google has invested in over 30 AI-related companies, including DeepMind Healthcare, Verily, Colico, and Editas\u2014companies that are recognized in healthcare.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg has doubled down on Meta\u2019s AI strategy. In a recent CNBC interview, he stated, \u201cIt\u2019s clear that there are a lot of new opportunities to use AI to accelerate our core business and deliver strong ROI over the next few years.\u201d Meta is set to increase its AI investments by $10 billion, and its stock hit a record high in December, rising 72% in 2024.<\/p>\n
Another surprising development in 2024 was the performance of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin. The U.S. presidential election undoubtedly had an impact, but Bitcoin had already surged over 50% before the first presidential debate. After the election of President Trump to a second, non-consecutive term, Bitcoin\u2019s price soared. I\u2019ve bought Bitcoin several times and always made a profit. The last time, I bought in around $5,000 and sold at $30,000. Many people thought I was crazy when I sold, but some now say I was foolish for letting it go. I\u2019m bullish on the new administration’s approach to capital formation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the future of Crypto and utility tokens, which I believe could play a role in healthcare, particularly in empowering consumers.<\/p>\n
I see a connection between AI and cryptocurrencies\/tokens. Many have ridiculed Bitcoin for more than a decade. I hold patents in the use of blockchain and tokens for healthcare, and every potential investor I spoke to advised me not to pursue it. It\u2019s interesting how some of the same people who are solely focused on AI now seem to overlook the significant potential of blockchain and token technologies in healthcare.<\/p>\n
While many are pouring money into the \u201cmagnificent seven\u201d of AI\u2014Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla\u2014the reality is that the biggest ROI opportunities lie in companies that will leverage AI infrastructure, data centers, and Large Language Models (LLMs) to impact people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
We remain committed to and confident that AI will transform healthcare, not by replacing providers, but by empowering consumers. We\u2019ve emphasized this in previous blogs and will continue to stress that AI isn\u2019t ready to replace providers, but it\u2019s certainly ready to start empowering consumers TODAY.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let\u2019s reflect on 2024 and the impact it has had on healthcare and Artificial Intelligence (AI). I am neither a sociologist nor a historian, but my focus has been on healthcare for decades. As we highlighted in one of our last blogs of 2024, healthcare costs in America have now surpassed $5 trillion annually. I\u2019ve been in healthcare long before we crossed the $1 trillion threshold. The assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thomson was a historic moment in healthcare, one that may have a lasting impact. My thoughts are with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/AdobeStock_830791375-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4654,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions\/4654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}