The writer is president of international, Bank of America It is always worth stepping back to assess where we stand on the historical arc of technological advancement. As we enter the age of artificial intelligence, there are important parallels with the dotcom boom, which first heralded the internet age.

Now, as then, an abundance of capital (this time around driven by a decade of ultra-low interest rates) has been directed towards technological innovation by venture capital firms, corporations and sovereign wealth funds. This mirrors the over-investment in start-ups that was so common during the dotcom era.

The impact of this surplus capital on innovation may only be felt over time: simply put, we know it will change the world, but we don’t yet know how. One central physical manifestation of innovation during the late 1990s, the iPhone, only appeared years later. AI, made tangible to the public through ChatGPT, still only offers a glimpse into the future possibilities of this latest phase of amply-funded technology.