In an intriguing shift of digital curiosity, the term “AI” has eclipsed “Bitcoin” and “crypto” in Google searches, signaling a new wave of public interest. This surge aligns with the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November last year, marking a significant pivot in online search behavior.
Historically, from 2020, “Bitcoin” and sometimes “crypto” dominated the search landscape, overshadowing “AI”. However, data from Google Trends indicates a notable change began in August 2022. By November, searches for “AI” soared, coinciding with ChatGPT’s launch, and have since maintained a widening lead over crypto-related inquiries.
![AI Trend Over Time](jpg/ai-trend-over-time.jpg)
Currently, “AI” boasts a commanding Google Trends score of 91, dwarfing Bitcoin’s 22. This scoring, ranging from 0 to 100, reflects the relative popularity of search topics on Google.
Despite Bitcoin’s struggle through a bear market in the latter half of 2021 and most of 2022, it has recently shown signs of recovery. Starting the year at $16,900, far from its peak of $68,729, Bitcoin has rebounded approximately 150%, marking a price of $43,400 at the time of writing, as per CoinMarketCap.
Notably, Bitcoin’s search interest peaks in El Salvador, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Switzerland. Meanwhile, the job market reflects this shifting focus, with “AI jobs” search frequency quadrupling that of “crypto jobs” since ChatGPT’s introduction.