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| Hey, Insiders! Welcome to your Monday AI newsletter. Here are today's top stories: - SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says AI could cause a financial crash in the next 10 years.
- Tech leaders withdraw from Web Summit tech conference after CEO's Israel remarks.
- Stack Overflow announces layoffs as AI-powered coding takes off.
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you! Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, warns that AI could trigger a future financial crisis without adequate regulation. In an interview with the Financial Times, Gensler expressed concerns that a crisis could emerge in the late 2020s or early 2030s, driven by the centralization of AI models and cloud service providers. More: - Gensler is concerned that institutions will become too reliant on the same AI models, which could lead to herd behavior in financial markets.
- He called for regulation to address both AI model development and its use by Wall Street banks, recognizing the complexity of the "cross-regulatory challenge."
- The SEC recently proposed a new rule to curb the use of AI by broker-dealers and investment advisers, though the rule has faced opposition from Republican lawmakers and industry groups.
Zoom out: - Gensler previously co-authored a research paper about AI in 2020. Titled "Deep Learning and Financial Stability," the paper highlights the potential risks AI poses to the financial system and advocates for government regulation.
Q: Do you agree with Gensler that AI regulation is needed in the financial sector? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | Ori Goshen, co-founder and co-CEO of AI startup AI21 Labs, has withdrawn himself as a keynote speaker of this year's Web Summit tech conference. Goshen said Tel-Aviv-based AI21 Labs will not attend following Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave's recent criticism of the Israeli government. More: - Cosgrave, the organizer of Web Summit, has faced backlash for remarks about Israel violating international law and committing war crimes.
- In a post on X, Cosgrave wrote that "what Hamas did is outrageous and disgusting" but added that while "Israel has a right to defend itself, it does not, as I have already stated, have a right to break international law."
- In response, Goshen and other tech leaders have distanced themselves from the conference.
- Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan canceled his appearance, and former PayPal Chief Executive David Marcus vowed never to participate, sponsor, or speak at a Web Summit event again.
Zoom out: - Web Summit is scheduled in Lisbon from Nov. 13 to 16.
- Other scheduled speakers include Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of AI research company Anthropic, and Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO at Cohere, among many others.
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| 3 | | Stack Overflow, a coding resource and forum, is reducing its workforce by 28% due to profitability issues and unspecified "macroeconomic pressures," according to CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar. The move comes as AI-powered coding tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT gain traction, leading to reduced website traffic on Stack Overflow as coders turn more to machine learning-based solutions. 
What happened: Today, Chandrasekar announced that Stack Overflow is "significantly reducing" the size of its go-to-market organization," along with "supporting teams" and other divisions. The company didn't specify the size of the layoffs, but based on Chandrasekar's disclosure from last October, over 140 employees are expected to be affected. The bigger picture: Last year, Stack Overflow doubled its headcount shortly before the release of ChatGPT and the generative AI boom that has injected chatbots into most corners of the tech industry, including coding. Meanwhile, Stack Overflow's AI suite, OverflowAI, may have factored into the company's efforts to cut expenses, given the high cost of developing and running AI programs. | | | |
| 4 | | AI is taking center stage at this week's Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference, which runs today through Wednesday in Laguna Beach, California. Speakers include Stanford AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, among many others. More: - Roblox CEO David Baszucki is also scheduled to speak today about generative AI's impact on the gaming industry.
- On Tuesday, DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman will discuss "AI's next frontier," followed by a session led by David Wadhwani, Adobe's digital media president, about the latest GenAI tools.
- In the evening, WSJ tech columnist Joanna Stern will interview Altman, Murati, and Chris Cox, Meta's chief product officer.
- Other speakers/attendees include Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Legend, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, and Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and Anduril Industries.
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| 5 | | New York City officials unveiled an AI Action Plan, the first of its kind among major U.S. cities, to promote responsible AI. The plan will help create a framework for how city agencies should use AI. More: - The plan details 37 key actions, with most set to begin or be completed over the next year.
- These include creating an AI governance framework that recognizes AI risks, such as bias, along with an external advisory network to tackle AI-related opportunities and challenges.
- The city also plans to educate government workers on AI skills "to prepare city employees to effectively and responsibly work with and on AI."
- It's planning to introduce AI-specific procurement standards for city contractors.
Zoom out: - New York City is also testing an AI chatbot on its MyCity Business website to answer questions about local business services.
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| 6 | | AI Events and Conferences: - International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Computing: Nov. 6-7, San Francisco.
- Computer Vision Summit London, Nov. 9, London.
- AI World Barcelona: Generative AI Conference: Nov. 14-15, Barcelona, Spain.
- Cerebral Valley AI Summit 2.0, Nov. 15, San Francisco.
- MLCon 2023, Nov. 28-29, online or Berlin, Germany.
- AI & Big Data Expo Global 2023: Nov. 30-Dec. 1, London, U.K.
- The AI Summit New York: Dec. 6-7, New York, N.Y.
- AI Expo, Powered by AWS, Dec. 9, Austin, Texas.
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Term of the Day Real gross domestic product: Real GDP is calculated by subtracting the effect of inflation from the nominal GDP. Question of the Week What perks would convince you to return to the office? Join the conversation |
INSIDE AI LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is an editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters, with a career spanning journalism since 2007. She has written for publications including The Arizona Republic and USA Today and authored a book on the solar industry in 2016. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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