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☆ Inside OpenAI's Sam Altman's fixation on death and the apocalypse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, spends a lot of time thinking about risk, especially as it relates to AI. One investor friend told Insider that Altman became even more fixated on delaying death when his father died in 2018. One investor friend told Insider that Altman "says we vastly underestimate risk in society." The investor friend told Insider that urgency grew when Altman's father, a real-estate developer, died in 2018. "I don't think anyone can lose your dad young and wish he didn't have more time with him," Altman told Insider.

☆ How Runway's idea for AI-driven video and photo editing and generation went from a "crazy" concept to a Silicon Valley darling worth half a billion dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When Runway's founders first came up with the idea for an AI art startup, they were called crazy. Now, the generative AI startup has become a fan favorite of VCs and the public alike. When Cristóbal Valenzuela began building his generative AI company Runway in 2018, investors, filmmakers, and advertisers told the cofounder that he was crazy. "They were saying, 'why would you want to build AI tools for video and filmmaking?'" Many of these features were developed hand-in-hand with customers, who often described to Runway the problems and obstacles they ran into while creating videos, Valenzuela said.

☆ UK retailers report record food inflation but see falls ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Overall inflation among BRC members dropped to 8.8% from March's 8.9% as price increases for non-food items slowed due to heavy discounting of clothing, footwear and furniture. Costlier coffee beans and more expensive packaging and production of ready-meals pushed up food inflation, but prices of butter and vegetable oil were starting to decline. "We should start to see food prices come down in the coming months as the cut to wholesale prices and other cost pressures filter through," BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said. Britain's official measure of consumer price inflation peaked last October at 11.1%, its highest in more than 40 years. The Office for National Statistics' measure of food price inflation - which is calculated differently to the BRC's - was the highest since 1977 in March at an annual 19.1%, reflecting higher costs for biscuits, cakes and confectionery.

☆ UK inflation expectations ease as BoE considers next rate hike
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Inflation expectations in Britain eased in April, bank Citi said on Monday, offering some relief to the Bank of England which is expected to announce a 12th straight interest rate hike next week with investors betting on further increases after that. "However, today’s data still suggest UK inflation expectations overall remain anchored at target-consistent levels," Nabarro said. "With acute shortages and food inflation primarily responsible for recent volatility, we think risks around these data are more likely to ease in the months ahead than intensify further." The BoE is widely expected to raise borrowing costs again on May 11 after its monthly monetary policy meeting, with inflation running at five times its 2% target. Investors are putting a 92% probability on a 25 basis-point increase in Bank Rate to 4.5% and roughly 50 chance of hitting 5% by August.

☆ Consumers are wising up to 'greedflation' as food companies keep prices high
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Most consumers think food brands are using inflation "as an excuse to hike prices," a survey says. PepsiCo, Nestlé, Conagra, and other food companies say they are trying to cover their costs. While costs of raw materials, labor, and shipping have continued to be high, many food companies have reported leaps in profit at the same time. Many have noticed that food companies' profits have been increasing, too, a sign to them that some of the higher prices are about something other than covering production costs. Recent earnings from food companies suggest that many have raised prices higher than inflation.

☆ Business travel spending in the US and Europe could bounce back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, but inflation may shrink the spending pie: Deloitte
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Business travel could recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, per a Deloitte survey. But travel spending might be 10% to 20% lower than pre-pandemic levels due to inflation, per Deloitte. There's good and bad news for those hoping for a full recovery in business travel to pre-pandemic levels. Of the 106 US-based respondents, 71% told Deloitte they expected companies to revert to 2019 travel spending levels by the end of 2024. In comparison, 68% of the 228 European respondents said business travel could recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year.

☆ Dutch celebrate King's Day as confidence in monarchy diminishes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands pose with their daughters, Princess Ariane and Princess Catharina-Amalia, during King's Day (Koningsdag) in Rotterdam, Netherlands, April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Piroschka van de WouwROTTERDAM, April 27 (Reuters) - Millions of Dutch revellers took to the streets on Thursday to celebrate King's Day festivities, dressing in orange and enjoying open-air markets - even as trust in the man at the centre of the nationwide party sinks to a low ebb. These numbers had held firm at around 75% until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The historic centres of Amsterdam, Utrecht and The Hague have been filled with thousands of people since late on Wednesday as King's Eve parties kicked off the festivities. Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

April 26 (Reuters) - With more and more lawyers at major law firms using fast-advancing generative artificial intelligence tools, legal AI startup Harvey said Wednesday that it raised $21 million in fresh investor cash. Sequoia Capital, which is leading the Series A fundraising round, said more than 15,000 law firms are on a waiting list to start using Harvey. The company says it builds custom large language models for law firms. Technology companies and investors have rushed to embrace large language model-based generative AI since Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT debuted in November. Casetext in March released its AI legal assistant product, CoCounsel, which uses GPT-4 to speed up tasks like legal research, contract analysis and document review.

☆ New reports say business travel isn’t going back to normal — ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | Rob Goss | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The days of high-flying, big-spending business travel may be over for good. As a new report by research company Morning Consult declared: Business travel will never return to normal. Tighter corporate budgets and new ways of virtual working have permanently changed business travel, according to the report, titled "Business, but Not as Usual." A different business travel model is slowly but surely becoming entrenched, crystallizing a "new normal" for the industry, according to the report. Bright spots for business travelBut there are several bright spots for those cheering the robust return of business travel, according to the reports.

The size of subsidies under the EU Chips Act, which aims to tempt the world's top chipmakers to build factories in the bloc and double its share of global output to 20% by 2030, lags the $52 billion CHIPS for America Act. Taiwan accounts for more than 60% of global chip production and concerns are growing about heightened tensions between Taipei and Beijing. But Europe's relatively modest subsidies could put a brake on its ambition, said Richard Windsor of research company Radio Free Mobile. GOOD STARTThe EU Chips Act is a good start given the EU has little choice but to join the subsidy race, but the bloc should play to its chipmaking strengths, said Christopher Cytera, research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Catching up on the chips race is more than just building factories and the Chips Act acknowledges this with its focus on developing skilled labour for the future, said Anielle Guedes, senior research analyst at IDC Technologies.

☆ Gen Zs don't have a lot of money, but they're traveling anyway
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Gen Zs aren't easing into the travel market — they are exploding into it. Source: Morning ConsultYet unlike past generations, Gen Zs aren't waiting until they have high-paying jobs or a nest egg of savings to travel. Rather, "they are finding ways to fit it into their budgets now," according to Morning Consult's report on Gen Z travel trends. Only 11% Gen Zs who travel frequently come from households earning $100,000 or more annually, according to Morning Consult. Gen Zs and millennials also want — and will shell out more for — pools and pet-friendly accommodations, according to Hopper's "2023 Travel Trends Report."

☆ I swear by ChatGPT as a recruiter. Here's how it saves me 10 hours a week and helps me hire the best candidates.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She started using ChatGPT to complete tasks and said it saves her at least 10 hours a week. I quickly started using ChatGPT for my agency, which specializes in hiring top engineering and healthcare talent. Before using ChatGPT, it took me a long time — around 15 hours a week — to manually put together lists that matched my criteria. Now, I only spend roughly five hours a week making lists of items for my Boolean search strings. ChatGPT saves me a minimum of 10 hours a weekPreviously, I did the research and writing for my Boolean search string manually.

☆ Exploring the Lakes of Minneapolis With $350,000: Could She Afford Three Bedrooms?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Mitch Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

When Rae Bullinger returned to the Minneapolis area three years ago after a spell in Nebraska, she knew she was there to stay. Ms. Bullinger, 26, loved summer bike rides around the city’s lakes and enjoyed the lively food scene. She liked the apartment’s location and hoped to stay in South Minneapolis, where well-kept neighborhoods of single-family homes are interspersed with parkland and walkable retail districts. “You’re still a part of the city of Minneapolis, but you’re not downtown,” she said. When Ms. Bullinger began looking last fall, he said, there were plenty of choices within her budget.

☆ New vehicle prices fall below sticker price after nearly two years - Kelley Blue Book
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 12 (Reuters) - New vehicles' average transaction price fell below the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the first time in 20 months, according to data published by automotive research company Kelley Blue Book. Vehicle prices turned hot after a pandemic-driven supply chain snag and an increased demand for private cars. The average transaction price of a new vehicle in the U.S. declined 1.1% in March to $48,008 from February's $48,558. However, March prices rose 3.8% compared to a year earlier. Top global automakers, except Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), reported a rise in first-quarter U.S. sales on improving shipments to dealers as vehicle inventories improve.

☆ New vehicle prices fall below sticker price after nearly two years, Kelley Blue Book data shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 12 (Reuters) - New vehicles' average transaction price fell below the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the first time in 20 months, according to data published by automotive research company Kelley Blue Book. Vehicle prices turned hot after a pandemic-driven supply chain snag and an increased demand for private cars. The average transaction price of a new vehicle in the U.S. declined 1.1% in March to $48,008 from February's $48,558. Top global automakers, except Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), reported a rise in first-quarter U.S. sales on improving shipments to dealers as vehicle inventories improve. Reporting by Pratyush Thakur in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Vietnam to conduct 'comprehensive inspection' of TikTok over harmful content
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are all cross-border social media with international standards. But when operating in Vietnam, the platform needs to abide by local regulations on both content and tax obligations," Do said. "This is an interdisciplinary inspection activity planned by the government and in line with Vietnam law for companies operating in Vietnam, not only TikTok," TikTok Vietnam said in an email. In a statement to Reuters, TikTok Vietnam also said it had upgraded its guidelines expected to take effect from April 24 to be more transparent about its rules and how it would enforce them. The app has nearly 50 million users in Vietnam aged 18 and above, the government said in a separate statement, citing data from a research company DataReportal.

☆ Elon Musk wants to pause 'dangerous' AI development. Bill Gates disagrees—and he's not the only one
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

AI developers, prominent AI ethicists and even Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates have spent the past week defending their work. "I don't think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges," Gates told Reuters on Monday. A pause would be difficult to enforce across a global industry, Gates added — though he agreed that the industry needs more research to "identify the tricky areas." That's what makes the debate interesting, experts say: The open letter may cite some legitimate concerns, but its proposed solution seems impossible to achieve. It noted in its blog post that future AI systems could become "much more powerful" over the next decade, and building guardrails now could "help reduce risks" down the road.

With large language models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Bard quickly increasing their power and reach, vLex and Fastcase are betting their combined document library will be a rich training data set for legal AI products. "It will always make sense to train legal LLMs on legal data instead of the World Wide Web," Walters said. The merger creates a law library that is "the biggest legal data corpus ever assembled," the companies said. Other large law firms are using new products from companies like Casetext, a legal research company that last month released a new generative AI legal assistant product. Casey Flaherty of legal innovation collective LexFusion predicted the new vLex would be a "serious player" among legal information companies as AI progresses.

☆ AI 'prompt engineer' jobs can pay up to $335,000 a year and don't always require a background in tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The rise in generative AI tools like ChatGPT has created a hot market for "prompt engineers." Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, has spoken about the need for prompt engineers. Anna Bernstein, a prompt engineer at Copy.ai, was a freelance writer and historical research assistant before she started working with AI tools. Prompt marketplace PromptBase, which launched last June, allows people to hire prompt engineers or sell their prompts. Don't dwell too much on the current state of prompt engineering.

☆ Harvard expert 'takes issue' with Mark Zuckerberg's Meta layoffs: Cutting jobs over email is 'absolutely horrific'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to let go of 10,000 more workers in his company's latest round of layoffs, a Harvard University expert says she "takes issue" with the way some of them are being conducted — namely, over email. A bevy of ex-Meta employees have spoken with media outlets or posted on social media about getting laid off via email in recent weeks. Jennifer Haynes, a former Meta technical recruiter, filmed herself checking her email and learning that she'd been laid off in real time. On March 13, one day before Zuckerberg's layoffs announcement, a share of Meta stock was worth $180.90. This story has been updated to reflect that similar reports of recent layoffs though email have emerged from Amazon and Twitter.

☆ What do AI art generators think a CEO looks like? Most of the time a white guy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

New research suggests that AI image generators reflect racial and gender bias in their outputs. AI tool DALL-E 2 was found to link white men with 'CEO' or 'director' 97% of the time. The study found 97% of DALL-E 2's images of positions of authority — like "CEO" or "director" — depicted white men. These biases can have real-world consequences now that image companies are launching their own generative AI tools, per the researchers. Even though AI companies have made efforts to "debias" their tools, "they have yet to be extensively tested," Luccioni said.

☆ Indian shares open higher as SVB acquisition hopes aid sentiment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, March 27 (Reuters) - Indian shares opened higher on Monday after reports of advanced talks for the acquisition of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank brought relief to markets, although fears of contagion in the global banking system lingered. Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with the heavyweight financials index (.NIFTYFIN) adding 0.3%. While reports of a potential acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank by First Citizens BancShares Inc calmed nerves, concerns over credit crunch persisted, putting authorities on high alert over the fallout from recent banking turmoil. Among individual Indian stocks, shares of Phoenix Mills (PHOE.NS) jumped nearly 6% after global brokerage firm Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on the stock with an "overweight" recommendation. ($1 = 82.1970 Indian rupees)Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen SorengOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ More millennials are turning 40 — and they're changing travel as we know it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

And they're bringing their tech-savviness, social consciousness and spending habits in tow, which is transforming a travel industry intent on staying ahead of the times. "When it comes to nearly all travel behaviors, millennials are the generation most likely to engage — and they do so often," said Lindsey Roeschke, travel and hospitality analyst at Morning Consult. Where millennials stayFrederic Lalonde, CEO of the travel app Hopper, said its customers are twice as likely to stay in a home than a hotel. "It's all driven by our primary users, who are millennials and Gen Z," he said at the Skift Global Forum 2022. Since 2019, Airbnb home rentals increased the most among travelers with children aged six and younger, according to the company.

☆ Sam Altman, who was already wealthy before starting OpenAI, reportedly doesn't own any equity in the company behind ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took no equity in the company when it became for-profit, Semafor reported. Altman was already wealthy from his investments in successful startups before he cofounded OpenAI. He reportedly said OpenAI was not meant to make money, and not having equity would keep him aligned to its mission. Altman was reportedly already wealthy from his investments in successful startups, having previously served as president of startup incubator YCombinator prior to helming OpenAI, the company behind the buzzy artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment nor to confirm Altman's lack of equity in the company.

☆ Google begins rolling out its ChatGPT rival
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Google is opening up access to Bard, its new AI chatbot tool that directly competes with ChatGPT. A company representative told CNN it will be a separate, complementary experience to Google Search, and users can also visit Search to check its responses or sources. Google said in a blog post it plans to “thoughtfully” add large language models to search “in a deeper way” at a later time. Like ChatGPT, which was released publicly in late November by AI research company OpenAI, Bard is built on a large language model. Google's ChatGPT rival Bard GoogleBut Bard’s blunder highlighted the challenge Google and other companies face with integrating the technology into their core products.

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