The Latest AI News in Business: 6/21/24
A curated set of the new news in AI for Business this week
So I’m trying something new this week, offering a curated set of news articles on how AI is being used in business. If you think this is worthwhile, let me know.
76% of CFOs at large firms anticipate use of labor-replacing AI
About three-quarters (76%) of large U.S. businesses are planning over the next 12 months to use artificial intelligence to automate tasks that have been performed by employees, according to a quarterly survey of CFOs by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta.
The number is up from 55% of companies of this size that deployed labor-replacing AI initiatives over the past 12 months, according to the survey results, released Thursday.
“CFOs say their firms are tapping AI to automate a host of tasks, from paying suppliers, invoicing, procurement, financial reporting, and optimizing facilities utilization,” Duke finance professor John Graham, academic director of the survey, said in a press release. “This is on top of companies using ChatGPT to generate creative ideas and to draft job descriptions, contracts, marketing plans and press releases.”
AI skills can help you land a job or promotion faster—especially for Gen Z, says new research
Close to 70% of leaders say they won’t hire someone without AI skills and would rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced person without them, according to the report, which surveyed more than 30,000 people in 31 countries.
“Learning basic AI skills — such as prompt engineering, machine learning or data literacy — is the best insurance to shortcut your competitiveness against people who might have more experience,” Aneesh Raman, a vice president and workforce expert at LinkedIn, tells CNBC Make It.
Some companies including Google and Amazon have announced investments in teaching their workforce AI skills, but such initiatives aren’t the norm: Only 25% of companies are planning to offer training on generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft and LinkedIn found. There are dozens of free online courses people can use to learn AI skills offered by companies like IBM and Google and Ivy League institutions like Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
ChatGPT Enterprise Pricing, Features and Limitations (MRM - $60/month per use seems way too much)
When OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise, it was hailed as “the most powerful version of ChatGPT yet.” Early adopters included major firms such as Canva, PwC, and Klarna. Business leaders using ChatGPT Enterprise have sung its praises.
As a solution aimed at large businesses, Enterprise isn’t cheap. But what makes it different to the other versions of ChatGPT available? And do those differences really make the higher price tag worth it?
In this article, we break down how much ChatGPT Enterprise might cost, its features and limitations, and how the tool might evolve in the near future.
How Much Is ChatGPT Enterprise?
ChatGPT Enterprise is the only version of ChatGPT that isn’t self-serve. That means it doesn’t have a fixed price. Instead, potential customers must contact the OpenAI sales team to discuss pricing (which is fairly standard in the world of Enterprise SaaS). However, there are some clues about how much ChatGPT Enterprise may cost.
When ChatGPT Enterprise was first launched, one Reddit user on the r/ChatGPTPro forum claimed to have reached out to the OpenAI sales team. They were quoted:
$60 per user per month
Minimum contract length of 12 months
Minimum of 150 seats
OpenAI has not publicly stated whether that 12-month minimum is standard, nor whether $60 per user per month is accurate. Here’s what you get.
McDonald’s pulls AI ordering from drive-thrus — for now
(MRM – this is why it’s important to pick the right partners. Now McD’s is behind plus they wasted a bunch of money).
McDonald’s is pulling the plug on artificial intelligence ordering technology it was testing at more than 100 restaurant drive-thru systems in the US, a possible hiccup in the rapid rollout of AI in the fast food industry. The company had worked with IBM to develop and test AI-driven, voice-automated ordering at some of its restaurants. The fast food giant says it’s still working on AI-related solutions at a time when its rivals are making similar investments. It plans to shut off the technology in restaurants participating in the test “no later than July 26, 2024,” according to reporting from trade publication Restaurant Business.
“IBM remains a trusted partner and we will still utilize many of their products across our global System,” McDonald’s said in an email sent to franchisees and shared with CNN. But the company suggested it will look at AI partners other than IBM.
McDonald’s is not the only fast-food chain experimenting with AI. Other companies like White Castle tested out an automated drive-thru ordering system in 2021, and Wendy’s expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to roll out its own AI ordering tool in May last year.
Despite fast-food companies’ enthusiasm to integrate AI-powered solutions into their daily operations, the technology has still hit snags. Some customers have complained about AI getting their orders wrong — a result of the technology’s inability to recognize some accents and distinguish the customer’s voice from background noise.
For America to lead in AI, it needs Cheap Energy
If we want the future of artificial intelligence to be built in the United States, then we're gonna need to produce a lot more electricity...
Tech firms look for a miracle solution as AI exhausts the power grid - The Washington Post
As the tech giants compete in a global AI arms race, a frenzy of data center construction is sweeping the country. Some computing campuses require as much energy as a modest-sized city, turning tech firms that promised to lead the way into a clean energy future into some of the world’s most insatiable guzzlers of power. Their projected energy needs are so huge, some worry whether there will be enough electricity to meet them from any source.
Data centers, the nondescript warehouses packed with racks of servers that power the modern internet, have been around for decades. But the amount of electricity they need now is soaring because of AI. Training artificial intelligence models and using AI to execute even simple tasks involves ever more complicated, faster and voluminous computations that are straining the electricity system.
A ChatGPT-powered search on Google, according to the International Energy Agency, consumes almost 10 times the amount of electricity as a traditional search. One large data center complex in Iowa owned by Meta burns the annual equivalent amount of power as 7 million laptops running eight hours every day, based on data shared publicly by the company.
The data-center-driven resurgence in fossil fuel power contrasts starkly with the sustainability commitments of tech giants Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta, all of which say they will erase their emissions entirely as soon as 2030. The companies are the most prominent players in a constellation of more than 2,700 data centers nationwide, many of them run by more obscure firms that rent out computing power to the tech giants.
“They are starting to think like cement and chemical plants. The ones who have approached us are agnostic as to where the power is coming from,” said Ganesh Sakshi, chief financial officer of Mountain V Oil & Gas, which provides natural gas to industrial customers in Eastern states.
Tech companies are confronting this dilemma with bravado. Artificial intelligence thinkers like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a major backer of Microsoft’s fusion start-up partner Helion, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who invests big in other fusion efforts, say breakthroughs in energy are achievable.
Target AI tool coming in August for store employees
Target is banking on a new generative artificial intelligence tool to help employees do their jobs and improve the shopping experience.
Why it matters: The Minneapolis-based company is the latest retailer to bet on AI for increased efficiency amid rising labor costs and underwhelming sales.
Driving the news: Target said Thursday that it's rolling out its "Store Companion chatbot" as an app for employees at all of its nearly 2,000 stores.
It will be featured on workers' store-owned handheld devices to answer questions about processes and procedures.
The retailer developed the tool in-house and is currently piloting it in about 400 stores before the nationwide rollout.
The big picture: Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy are among the retailers that recently launched AI tools like chatbots for employees or consumers.
Target said in December it was using AI to help shoppers personalize both their online and in-store shopping trips.
How it works: The system will be able to answer questions about topics like the chain's Target Circle loyalty card, the location of products throughout the store and how to restart the cash register — all in a "conversational" manner, says chief information officer Brett Craig. "It is really about trying to empower and improve how our team members effectively work with our guests," Craig tells Axios.
How AI Is Revolutionizing Drug Development
The laboratory at Terray Therapeutics is a symphony of miniaturized automation. Robots whir, shuttling tiny tubes of fluids to their stations. Scientists in blue coats, sterile gloves and protective glasses monitor the machines.
But the real action is happening at nanoscale: Proteins in solution combine with chemical molecules held in minuscule wells in custom silicon chips that are like microscopic muffin tins. Every interaction is recorded, millions and millions each day, generating 50 terabytes of raw data daily — the equivalent of more than 12,000 movies.
The lab, about two-thirds the size of a football field, is a data factory for artificial-intelligence-assisted drug discovery and development in Monrovia, California. It’s part of a wave of young companies and startups trying to harness AI to produce more effective drugs, faster.
Just as popular chatbots like ChatGPT are trained on text across the internet, and image generators like DALL-E learn from vast troves of pictures and videos, AI for drug discovery relies on data. And it is very specialized data — molecular information, protein structures and measurements of biochemical interactions. The AI learns from patterns in the data to suggest possible useful drug candidates, as if matching chemical keys to the right protein locks.
Because AI for drug development is powered by precise scientific data, toxic “hallucinations” are far less likely than with more broadly trained chatbots. And any potential drug must undergo extensive testing in labs and in clinical trials before it is approved for patients.
Companies like Terray are building big high-tech labs to generate the information to help train the AI, which enables rapid experimentation and the ability to identify patterns and make predictions about what might work.
Generative AI can then digitally design a drug molecule. That design is translated, in a high-speed automated lab, to a physical molecule and tested for its interaction with a target protein. The results — positive or negative — are recorded and fed back into the AI software to improve its next design, accelerating the overall process.
Fun Fact: Nvidia (AI Chip Maker) was responsible for 40% of all gains in Nasdaq this year.
Why ChatGPT Will Make You Happier At Work
To leverage AI effectively and enhance your job satisfaction, follow these steps:
1. Get Clear on Your Tasks: Identify the tasks in your workday that diminish your enthusiasm. Determine which ones take up the most of your time.
2. Identify AI-Compatible Tasks: From your list, identify the tasks that could be accomplished by AI, either fully or partially.
3. Research Tools: Explore AI tools and solutions that can help you automate these tasks. This might involve experimenting with different AI platforms to find the best fit for your needs, talking to others in your field, or taking a course.
4. Implement: Starting with one routine task, create your plan for incorporating AI, then measure the impact. Once you have that process sorted, take on your next most monotonous task, and then the next.
Adopt generative AI tools like ChatGPT to streamline your workload, reduce monotony, and focus on what truly drives you. This not only enhances your job satisfaction but also bolsters your personal brand attribute of “change agent.” Embracing AI is not just about keeping up with technology; it's about creating a more enjoyable and meaningful work experience.
AI took their jobs. Now they get paid to make it sound human
If you're worried about how AI will affect your job, the world of copywriters may offer a glimpse of the future.
Writer Benjamin Miller – not his real name – was thriving in early 2023. He led a team of more than 60 writers and editors, publishing blog posts and articles to promote a tech company that packages and resells data on everything from real estate to used cars. "It was really engaging work," Miller says, a chance to flex his creativity and collaborate with experts on a variety of subjects. But one day, Miller's manager told him about a new project. "They wanted to use AI to cut down on costs," he says. (Miller signed a non-disclosure agreement, and asked the BBC to withhold his and the company's name.)
A month later, the business introduced an automated system. Miller's manager would plug a headline for an article into an online form, an AI model would generate an outline based on that title, and Miller would get an alert on his computer. Instead of coming up with their own ideas, his writers would create articles around those outlines, and Miller would do a final edit before the stories were published. Miller only had a few months to adapt before he got news of a second layer of automation. Going forward, ChatGPT would write the articles in their entirety, and most of his team was fired.
The few people remaining were left with an even less creative task: editing ChatGPT's subpar text to make it sound more human. By 2024, the company laid off the rest of Miller's team, and he was alone. "All of a sudden I was just doing everyone's job," Miller says. Every day, he'd open the AI-written documents to fix the robot's formulaic mistakes, churning out the work that used to employ dozens of people.
Citi Sees AI Displacing More Bank Jobs Than Any Other Sector
About 54% of jobs across banking have a high potential to be automated, the bank said Wednesday in a new report on AI. An additional 12% of roles across the industry could be augmented with the technology, Citigroup found.
The world’s biggest banks have slowly begun experimenting more with AI over the last year, spurred by the promise that it will help them boost staffers’ productivity and cut costs. In its latest report, Citigroup found that the technology could add $170 billion to the banking industry’s coffers by 2028.
Citigroup has said it would equip its 40,000 coders with the ability to experiment with different AI technologies, and the company has said it’s used generative AI, which can produce sentences, essays or poetry based on a user’s simple questions or commands, to quickly comb through hundreds of pages of regulatory proposals.
“Our focus now is to taking it from the lab to the factory floor,” Citigroup’s Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said Thursday at the company’s digital money symposium, adding that the banking giant is also exploring using AI to offer custom investment recommendations for wealth clients and to improve its cybersecurity offerings.