Why AI is the new atomic bomb

Kolkata: In 2025, Mark Zuckerberg is offering $100 million for scientists to join his Superintelligence Labs Division, to help build Artificial Intelligence software that is smarter than humans.

In the 1940’s a similar manhunt was undertaken by the Allies and Axis powers to develop the atomic bomb, eventually cracked by Robert Oppenheimer and his team at Los Alamos. Whether the quest for creation or the immediacy of destruction, a common ambition unites the two endeavours - absolute global domination.

By now, it is amply clear why domination was the agenda in the 1940’s, with the rampaging Nazis and the Japanese collaborators competing head to head with the Anglo-American forces.

Scientists with the capability to develop the game-changing weapon were in high demand, and all routes, from defection to abduction to monetary seduction, were suitably applied. Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only sealed the fate of the war but also provided a geopolitical foundation for the next 100 years, defining the course of history.

In 2025, the stakes are no less significant, even if we view it from the focused lens of Marketing. The global advertising market is expected to surpass $1.6 trillion in 2025. By 2029, 85% of revenues are expected to be generated in programmatic advertising. 80% of total ad spend will come from digital sources by 2029.

The Indian advertising market is expected to touch $15.78 billion in 2025, while the USA is at $455 billion. 45% of revenue is expected to come from Digital advertising by 2029, while 85% of advertising will be generated by programmatic advertising by 2029.

More than 50% of global ad spend is directed towards Google, Meta, Bytedance and Amazon. 8 out of the top 10 ad firms are tech companies. Global ad spending is poised to grow by 6% YOY.

Meta’s AI-powered Advantage + System claims to increase return on ad spending by 22% while Google’s Performance Max product increases sales by 10%. Google’s AI-powered Search Mode is potentially even more effective as users type more detailed queries.

New Gen AI products by Meta, TikTok and others have been launched in 2025, which can create ads in any format without human intervention, for the role of maintenance and promotional activities. In the next five years, the potential is expected to further escalate.

Interestingly, companies are now creating ads from both a customer as well as an agentic AI lens, so that LLMs are able to decode better and add to the positive narrative of the brand. A new science is thus emerging, driven by technology and implemented by technology.

Alembic, a start-up, has converted its Contact Tracing competencies, developed by COVID, to Marketing, in order to specifically isolate the impact of activities on sales. This is the beginning of the next frontier of accountability.

Marketing Operations, at large, will benefit from all of the above. Sam Altman predicts that 95% of Marketing will be AI-led in the next decade. Google believes that AI has the most potential to improve business outcomes in the history of business.

For corporations, across the continuum of scale, the AI-empowered offering is thus a catalyst for innovation-led, agile and proactive growth. It is simply not possible to operate in isolated environments any longer, without integrating competencies on the bedrock of AI.

The complexities of the new age require a relentless equilibrium between Point of Parity and Point of Difference. POP in terms of being state-of-the-art in technology, driven by AI-aided Analytics, which needs to be constantly benchmarked and upgraded. POD in terms of aligning the same to the implementation of the value proposition, across touchpoints.

Nvidia, the AI chip maker, became the first company to reach the $4 trillion mark and Apple, the first to reach one, two and three trillion, is publicly lagging behind in the race for AI. The battlelines have been drawn at two strata - China versus the USA for national supremacy and at a corporate level across the universe. Whoever wins will possibly control the economics and politics of civilisation for decades to come.

That is why the $100 million offer for talent is just the tip of the rampant escalation. To discover and secure the Oppenheimers of this era, companies and nations will be delighted to break the bank. The games are just beginning.