Category: AI

AI, Growth

How Walmart is using AI to improve its business, and save money

Colin Henderson

Relevance to Bankwatch Walmart report on business use of Gen AI to make adjustments to 860 million catalogue items at a speed of 100 times faster than humans. Said another way it would take average employees 100 times longer. This type of scaling is what we hear of in military and intelligence operations. I look forward to hearing more business examples to counter the evolving doubts appearing on the near term productivity from AI. Heads up to The Rundown AI. —-/— ByTomi Kilgore Marketwatch. CEO Doug McMillon said on the post-earnings call with analysts that Walmart was finding “tangible ways” … Continue reading How Walmart is using AI to improve its business, and save money

AI

And finally, here’s what Justina’s interested in this morning -Bloomberg

Colin Henderson

Justina Lee is a cross-asset reporter based in London. Follow Bloomberg’s Justina Lee on X @Justinaknope  . More than a year ago, I interviewed a few hedge funds about how they’re using ChatGPT. At the time, it already seemed clear the new tech could be very helpful in automating grunt work, but it was unclear what more it could do and data security was a big question mark. Over the last few months I’ve been speaking to hedge funds again and trying to get a sense of how their gen AI applications have evolved. Here are a few observations: The upshot seems pretty positive. One thing … Continue reading And finally, here’s what Justina’s interested in this morning -Bloomberg

AI

Eric Schmidt Walks Back Claim Google Is Behind on AI Because of Remote Work

Colin Henderson

Ex-Google CEO had said the tech company’s work-life balance was ‘more important than winning’ Joseph De AvilaAug. 14, 2024 at 9:47 pm Eric Schmidt, ex-CEO and executive chairman at Google, walked back remarks in which he said his former company was losing the artificial intelligence race because of its remote-work policies.  Schmidt, who left Google parent Alphabet’s GOOGL -0.12% board more than five years ago, spoke earlier at a wide-ranging discussion at Stanford University. He criticized Google’s remote-work policies in response to a question about Google competing with OpenAI. “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more … Continue reading Eric Schmidt Walks Back Claim Google Is Behind on AI Because of Remote Work

AI

Apple Pushes Ahead with Tabletop Home Device in Shift to Robotics

Colin Henderson

Executive who oversaw car project is leading the effort Device would offer twist on home products from Amazon and Meta Mark GurmanAugust 14, 2024 at 2:09 PM EDT Apple Inc., seeking new sources of revenue, is moving forward with development of a pricey tabletop home device that combines an iPad-like display with a robotic limb.  The company now has a team of several hundred people working on the device, which uses a thin robotic arm to move around a large screen, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The product, which relies on actuators to tilt the display up and … Continue reading Apple Pushes Ahead with Tabletop Home Device in Shift to Robotics

AI

The Global Race to Control A.I.

Colin Henderson

We explore who is winning — and what could come next. Aug. 14, 2024, 6:19 a.m. ET You’re reading The Morning newsletter.  Make sense of the day’s news and ideas. David Leonhardt and Times journalists guide you through what’s happening — and why it matters. As artificial intelligence advances, many nations are worried about being left behind. The urgency is understandable. A.I. is improving quickly. It could soon reshape the global economy, automate jobs, turbocharge scientific research and even change how wars are waged. World leaders want companies in their country to control A.I. — and they want to benefit from its … Continue reading The Global Race to Control A.I.

AI

Huawei Readies New Chip to Challenge Nvidia, Surmounting U.S. Sanctions

Colin Henderson

Chinese tech company looks for AI business with Ascend series but still faces production issues Aug. 13, 2024 at 5:43 am Chinese internet companies and telecommunications operators have been testing Huawei’s latest processor, called Ascend 910C, in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Huawei told potential clients that the new chip is comparable to Nvidia’s H100, which was introduced last year and isn’t directly available in China, the people said. Huawei’s ability to keep advancing in chips is the latest sign of how the company has managed to break through U.S.-erected obstacles and develop Chinese alternatives to … Continue reading Huawei Readies New Chip to Challenge Nvidia, Surmounting U.S. Sanctions

AI

LLM to ROI: How to scale gen AI in retail

Colin Henderson

Once generative AI (gen AI) hit the mainstream, in late 2022, it took little time for retail executives to realize the potential in front of them. Mentions of artificial intelligence (AI) in retailers’ earnings calls soared last year—which was no surprise, given that gen AI is poised to unlock between $240 billion to $390 billion in economic value for retailers, equivalent to a margin increase across the industry of 1.2 to 1.9 percentage points. This, combined with the value of nongenerative AI and analytics, could turn billions of dollars in value into trillions. Sidebar About the authors Over the past year, most retailers have … Continue reading LLM to ROI: How to scale gen AI in retail

AI

Automation is coming for private equity’s junior roles

Colin Henderson

By Sujeet Indap in New York The 1992 book Merchants of Debt, a critical history of the private equity firm KKR, recounts the moment in the early 1980s when a firm executive came across VisiCalc, the spreadsheet software that would upend both KKR and Wall Street.  “KKR couldn’t rapidly stalk several companies at once, because its financial blueprints required weeks of calculations by hand,” George Anders wrote of the old way of doing business. But with the arrival of VisiCalc “all of a sudden, giant companies’ finances could be picked apart in an afternoon”. After VisiCalc came Lotus 1-2-3 and later Microsoft … Continue reading Automation is coming for private equity’s junior roles

AI

Where have OpenAI’s founders gone?

Colin Henderson

By George Hammond in San Francisco Just two of OpenAI’s 11-strong founding team are still active at the ChatGPT maker, after an exodus following November’s attempted boardroom coup against chief executive Sam Altman.  Three co-founders have departed so far this year, including John Schulman, who defected to its artificial intelligence rival Anthropic this week. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, also said on Monday he would be taking extended leave from the company.  A high rate of turnover is not unusual at a start-up. However, attrition of senior figures at OpenAI has stepped up in recent months following November’s leadership crisis, when Altman was fired … Continue reading Where have OpenAI’s founders gone?

AI

Conversation with Francois Chollet and Mike Knoop on the $1 million ARC-AGI Prize they’re launching

Colin Henderson

https://open.substack.com/pub/dwarkesh “Okay, today, I have the pleasure to speak with Francois Chollet, who is an AI researcher at Google and creator of Keras. And he’s launching a prize in collaboration with Mike Knoop, the co-founder of Zapier, who we’ll also be talking to in a second, a million dollar prize to solve the ARC benchmark that he created. So first question, what is the ARC benchmark? And why do you even need this prize? Why won’t the biggest alum we have in a year be able to just saturate it? Sure. So ARC is intended as a kind of IQ … Continue reading Conversation with Francois Chollet and Mike Knoop on the $1 million ARC-AGI Prize they’re launching