An unknown phenomenon is drastically changing how many Americans choose to retire.
Keith Kohl calls the new income stream this development has created “AI Equity Checks,” and we can claim our first check as soon as April 23rd.
The Teaser
All told, there’s $5.42 billion up for grabs from companies leading the charge into AI, such as Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Intel.
Keith Kohl is the longtime director of technology research and investment at Angel Publishing. An investment research outfit whose teasers we have regularly covered, including, most recently, Angel founder Brian Hicks’ “Bitcoin Loophole” and Keith Kohl’s AI Robot Stocks.
Before reading Keith's teaser, I had never heard about Amazon paying any kind of a dividend, so naturally it made me sit up in my chair, like the gamer meme.
So, what is Keith talking about?
An obscure Korean War-era law known as the Defense Production Act.
It was first enacted into law on September 8, 1950, at the onset of the Korean War, and has since been used for a broad range of purposes, like establishing the domestic aluminum and titanium industries and increasing firehose availability during times of wildfires.
Today, the Defense Production Act is being used to bring artificial intelligence under the scrutiny of the U.S. government.
As an example, every time a company trains a high-powered AI algorithm, it is now required to report to the Commerce Department.
This is all public knowledge; however, what many don't know is that AI firms have entered into contracts with a handful of “special companies.” These companies receive regular payments from the most prominent AI firms on the planet.
Instead of holding onto these payments, they regularly pass them on to individual shareholders in the form of “AI Equity Checks” (dividends).
Keith says we can become shareholders in these companies “with as little as $10” and receive “AI Equity Checks” each time they’re issued. We won’t need to do anything else, except sit back and enjoy our payments.
The Pitch
A special research report details what we need to know to start receiving and cashing checks. It's called “AI Equity Checks: The Lifelong Artificial Intelligence Income Stream.”
It is ours if we take the Technology and Opportunity investment service for a spin. The cost to do so is $99 and includes a six-month money-back guarantee, two bonus special research reports, and a minimum of 12 “cutting-edge, exciting stock recommendations” per year.
AI's Dirty Secret
Beyond AI's implications on national security, there's another reason it has come under the purview of the Defense Production Act.
It's the same reason there have been calls for an “AI tax.”
The reason is data.
Artificial intelligence is underpinned by Large Language Models (LLMs), which are humongous data sets. These data sets are analyzed and processed by algorithms that learn from and organize them.
The final step is what we see when we ask ChatGPT or Grok a question – the output.
This overly simple explanation plainly shows that the data we created and own is being used to train AI models.
Simply put, every piece of public information, including our data, that we allowed sites like Facebook and Google to use and share is now being used by AI models.
ChatGPT, which is partly owned by OpenAI and Microsoft, openly states this in its terms and conditions, saying “your data is used to improve model performance.”
Those among us who are diligent have even discovered private medical records being used in an AI training database.
I don't know about you, but I don't recall ever opting into or receiving a check for such uses.
A Non-Partisan Issue
Artificial intelligence is already the most explosive breakthrough technology in history, and it is on track to contribute more to the global economy than the GDP of any single nation.
Millionaires and billionaires are being minted off it, and it's about time we got paid too.
Donkeys and elephants agree, which is why the White House is classifying AI models trained on broad data as a matter of “national economic security.”
According to Keith, AI Equity Checks are already flowing, citing examples like “Hank B., whose most recent check was $17,404.”
The next AI Equity Check could be cut as early as April 23rd. Let's see how we can get our hands on it.
Revealing Keith Kohl's “AI Equity Checks”
The conclusion of Keith's long-winded teaser is that we should buy stock in a select few companies selling our data for use in AI training models.
What specific companies?
Keith doesn't elaborate on this all-important part, but we did track down several public companies that have already cut deals with major tech firms to use their customer data in AI training.
- Shutterstock Inc. (NYSE: SSTK) was among the first to allow access to its extensive library of images and other media for AI training purposes.
- Reddit Inc. (NYSE: RDDT) did an infamous $60 million licensing deal with Google to provide access to its post data.
- News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) made a deal with OpenAI, giving it access to content from some of its biggest news publications.
- Liveramp Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RAMP), by default, as a data broker, sells data for AI training and other uses.
Keith teased a handful of “AI Equity Check” companies and “one more AI opportunity he’d be crazy not to share.”
- This company provides the ears AI needs to hear commands and questions, just like humans, thanks to its state-of-the-art microphones.
- Right now, the company is worth less than $2 billion.
Keith could be talking about SoundHound AI Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN).
- The company's end-to-end AI voice products have already been integrated into various products, like Kia cars and VIZIO TVs.
- SoundHound's market cap currently sits at around $2.9 billion after a 46% run-up over the past year.
$57,500 in Passive Income Per Year?
“The logic of words should yield to the logic of reality.”
20th century Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis had Keith Kohl's “AI Equity Checks” teaser in mind when he made his famous quote.
The reality is that companies selling our public data to AI firms are under no obligation to pay out the proceeds of these deals to us in dividends.
Neither the Defense Production Act nor the policies of the public companies we found that entered into AI content licensing deals specify that they will pay out such income.
Only two of the businesses mentioned (Shutterstock and News Corp.) pay any kind of an annual dividend. Given their respective yields of 8% and 0.8%, it would take an investment of well over $500,000 to make anything close to $50,000 in annual passive income.
Some startups have launched initiatives making it easier to get paid directly for licensing content to AI firms, but these are still in the early stages.
As for SoundHound, it does have a first-mover advantage, but I don't like it at the prevailing valuation, and think its stock has further to fall.
Quick Recap & Conclusion
- Something Keith Kohl calls “AI Equity Checks” could change the way we retire.
- It turns out that Keith's “AI Equity Checks” are simply select companies licensing our user data to AI training models.
- A special research report called “AI Equity Checks: The Lifelong Artificial Intelligence Income Stream” details Keith's picks. The report is complimentary to subscribers of the Technology and Opportunity investment service, which costs $99 for the first year.
- No details were forthcoming about Keith's “AI Equity Check” companies. But the man did provide a couple of clues about “one more AI opportunity he’d be crazy not to share.” We were able to reveal this pick for free as SoundHound AI Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN).
- Keith's headline is largely clickbait, as no public companies are paying out dividends from licensing content to AI firms. The closest are Shutterstock and News Corp., which paid regular dividends well before ever licensing content to big tech.
Will an AI tax or “equity check” ever be mandated? Drop a Yes or a No in the comments.