Major US banks offered a largely upbeat outlook Tuesday, expressing confidence that the artificial intelligence investment boom will continue despite worries and public pushback around the technology.
JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were among the banking heavyweights reporting higher third-quarter profits due in part to solid trading and financial advisory revenues while describing continued US consumer health despite persistent inflation.
Executives face shifting challenges that include the grinding US-Iran war that has raised energy prices and recent moves by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to lift interest rates in light of inflation and rising US Treasury yields.
But perhaps the biggest question facing the industry's medium-term outlook concerns the durability of the AI boom and a growing list of public worries, most recently over the risk that rogue AI agents could harm or even destroy human life.
That is on top of other difficult questions, such as potential job losses and the impact of massive data centers on energy prices and water supplies.