Good morning.
Luck‘s Brainstorm AI conference kicked off in San Francisco yesterday, with dramatic statements about the advances made in AI technology in the past year. (If you haven’t been following these developments, check out this piece on Open AI’s new chatbot , or play with its sibling, Dall-E, which creates images from text.)
Some excerpts from the conference:
“We think AI is the biggest platform change since electricity and the internet. And we think it’s actually more dramatic than that… it’s going to spark innovation around the world. About four years ago, we updated our strategy, and we actually described AI as a core element of that strategy… It’s not a side gig.”
—Sasan Goodarzi, CEO, Intuit
“I don’t think AI and machine learning can be the solution to every problem. It really goes back to the question, ‘What is the business problem I’m trying to solve? What is the product problem I’m trying to solve.’ And to be really clear about it.”
—Yael Garten, Director of AI, Apple
“I think that our whole society is currently having this conversation about the stakeholder economy as well as the shareholder economy. And I think [A.I.] should be part of the same conversation, because in the process of creating and implementing artificial intelligence, it will affect all of our lives, and it is really important that we include all stakeholders of this technology in the design process.”
-Fei-Fei Li, co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
“This may surprise people, but I think you’ll find that many of us embrace regulation because we ask, “When is it appropriate to use these technologies?” we should consider the question. How do we put them into the world so that we don’t overwhelm them, but make sure we use them in the most useful, most appropriate ways, with enough control and thought.”
—James Manyika, Senior Vice President, Technology and Society, Google
“Snapchat has more AI on your phone than the entire US DOD (Department of Defense) combined.”
—Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril Industries
“Today, we routinely train AI systems on 50 data points or 100 data points. Data-centric AI is a key technology that is starting to work on these smaller data sets. It democratizes access to artificial intelligence.”
—Andrew Ng, CEO of Landing AI
You can watch today’s conference sessions here. Other news below. Here’s a fun fact of the day: 16 former PepsiCo executives are now Fortune 500 CEOs. How did a snack company become a factory for CEO talent? Phil Wahba dives here.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
MAIN NEWS
CEO of Slack
In what he called a “strange coincidence,” Stewart Butterfield announced his resignation as CEO of Slack just days after Bret Taylor announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Slack parent Salesforce. Butterfield told employees (in a Slack message, obviously) that he “wouldn’t do anything for entrepreneurship.” She will be replaced by current Vice President Lydiane Jones. whom LuckKylie Robison writes: “The string of departures raises more questions about Salesforce’s top management team and its plans to groom a potential successor to founder and CEO Marc Benioff. Luck
Neuralink probe
Federal authorities are reportedly investigating Elon Musk’s Neuralink over potential animal welfare violations. The brain chip company has killed nearly 1,500 animals during research, and some employees have complained that the hasty tests put the animals at unnecessary risk, Reuters reported. Reuters
Train promotion
The CEO of KLM has urged passengers to take the train instead of flying, where carbon emissions are lower and it makes sense to do so. Marjan Rintel was the rail chief before taking over at the Dutch flag carrier in July. His proposal comes in the context of several European countries, including the Netherlands, banning air travel for relatively short journeys. Financial Times
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Elon Musk may have fired Kanye West from Twitter, but the Anti-Defamation League says the CEO needs ‘clear policies, not personal interference’ Alena Botros
Photos on Twitter show Caroline Ellison in New York, sparking speculation about a plea deal involving FTX by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez.
America is so bad on vacation that only one other country is worse – Micronesia, Alena Botros
By Prarthana Prakash Starbucks has introduced a new dip system and customers are freaking out
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian, Biden was crowned world energy czar when diplomacy overcame Putin’s wrath.
This edition CEO Daily Edited by David Meyer.
This is the web version CEO Daily, A newsletter of must-read ideas from Luck CEO Alan Murray. Sign up for free delivery to your inbox.