Amazon Could Be Forced to Treat Drivers as Employees

October 10, 2024

(NYT) Amazon’s delivery system depends on third-party companies. But labor regulators have challenged that model, possibly opening the way for unionization. Hundreds of thousands of drivers who deliver Amazon packages don’t work directly for the e-commerce giant; instead, they’re employed by third-party logistics companies, called delivery service partners. Last year, Amazon ended a contract with…

AI May Not Live Up to the Hype, MIT Economist Daron Acemoglu Warns

October 2, 2024

(Bloomberg) Daron Acemoglu wants to make clear right away that he has nothing against artificial intelligence. He gets the potential. “I’m not an AI pessimist,” he declares seconds into an interview. What makes Acemoglu, a renowned professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, come off as a doomsayer locked in on the mounting economic and financial…

California governor vetoes major AI safety bill

September 29, 2024

(The Verge) California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act (SB 1047) today. In his veto message, Governor Newsom cited multiple factors in his decision, including the burden the bill would have placed on AI companies, California’s lead in the space, and a critique that the bill…

California Passes Law Protecting Consumer Brain Data

September 29, 2024

(NYT) On Saturday, Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed a new law that aims to protect people’s brain data from being potentially misused by neurotechnology companies. A growing number of consumer technology products promise to help address cognitive issues: apps to meditate, to improve focus and to treat mental health conditions like depression. These products…

2024 Sustainable Investment Survey

September 25, 2024

(Pitchbook) Are ESG and DEI dead? In this case, perception may be different from reality. While the ESG and Impact investing spaces are fraught with controversy, our fifth annual Sustainable Investment Survey shows that practitioners are leaning into their investment approaches in new and innovative ways.  With over 1,000 global respondents—including asset owners, VC and PE…

OpenAI to Become For-Profit Company

September 25, 2024

(WSJ) OpenAI is planning to convert from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit company at the same time it is undergoing major personnel shifts including the abrupt resignation Wednesday of its chief technology officer, Mira Murati. Becoming a for-profit would be a seismic shift for OpenAI, which was founded in 2015 to develop AI technology…

Section 230 Catches Up to AI

September 22, 2024

(WSJ) An appellate court holds companies liable for the actions of their algorithms. Read more here.

LinkedIn is training AI models on your data

September 18, 2024

(Verge) You’ll need to opt out twice to stop LinkedIn from using your account data for training in the future — but anything already done is done. Read more here.

BlackRock and Microsoft plan $30bn fund to invest in AI infrastructure

September 17, 2024

(FT) Nvidia and Abu Dhabi-backed MGX will join effort as energy-intensive tech strains power and data grids Read more here.

Calpers Investment Chief Warns of ‘Adverse Selection’ in Private-Equity Co-Investments

September 17, 2024

(WSJ) Stephen Gilmore says the $503 billion pension has to be among the key clients of its private-equity managers to ensure it gets access to the best direct deals. Read more here.