AI @ Noon | October 31

Bloomberg: AI’s $1.3 trillion future increasingly hinges on Taiwan

+ Stock market is hottest major Asian exchange thanks to AI

+ ‘Taiwan is really the engine that’s driving AI,’ says analyst


The next AI debate is about geopolitics: Data might be the “new oil,” but nations—not nature—will decide where to build data centers.  Jared Cohen

+  Jared Cohen is the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs and co-head of the Goldman Sachs Global Institute.

US crypto exchange Coinbase committed another $25 million of funding to Fairshake, an influential political action committee for the digital-asset industry.

Fact Sheet: Key AI accomplishments in the year since the Biden-⁠Harris administration’s landmark Executive Order: One year ago, President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The Executive Order directed sweeping actions to manage AI’s safety and security risks, protect Americans’ privacy, advance equity and civil rights, stand up for consumers and workers, promote innovation and competition, advance American leadership around the world, and more. WH Release

Center for AI Policy (CAIP) Congressional endorsements for Election 2024: The Center for AI Policy (CAIP) announced endorsements in Election 2024 for incumbent Representative Tom Kean, Jr. to continue representing New Jersey's 7th Congressional District and US Senate candidate Caroline Gleich to represent the people of Utah. Press Release

+ CAIP conducted a survey of notable races this election cycle for the first time as a small pilot project to ascertain federal candidates’ support of AI safety legislation and policies.

+ "I’m proud to earn the endorsement of the Center for AI Policy. As technology continues to evolve, we need a digital expert in Congress to help shape American policy for decades to come." -- Caroline Gleich - Candidate for US Senate (D-UT) + Ski mountaineer and athlete


Will Silicon Valley’s next member of Congress be tough on tech? Silicon Valley is set to get fresh congressional representation in the upcoming election, with two Democrats vying to fill retiring Rep. Anna G. Eshoo’s coveted seat in California’s 16th District. WP

Three Mile Island, notorious in nuclear power’s past, may herald its future: The Pennsylvania plant, site of the worst US nuclear energy accident, is at the forefront of efforts to expand nuclear capacity to meet rising electricity demand. NYT

Wall Street giants to make $50 billion bet on AI and power projects: WSJ reports KKR and Energy Capital Partners plan to invest in development of data centers and the power infrastructure to support them.

How Arm could be the unexpected winner of the AI investment boom: Shares in the British chip designer, which is controlled by SoftBank, have trebled in price over the past year. But its ambitions go much further. FT

Profit at Samsung Electronics Co.’s mainstay chip operations missed market expectations, reflecting the Korean tech leader’s struggles to catch up in lucrative AI chips.

Can startups thrive in an age of AI? Hemant Taneja + Fareed Zakaria

Amazon AI veteran joins PwC to lead innovation and AI push: WSJ reports Matt Wood is the accounting firm’s first commercial technology and innovation officer.

Microsoft’s GitHub unit cuts AI deals with Google, Anthropic: Bloomberg reports GitHub’s Copilot coding assistant will offer new AI models as option for users who want to switch from OpenAI.

Microsoft earnings show AI is bolstering its cloud Business: WSJ reports the quarterly revenue for the cloud unit rose 33%, indicating that the company's heavy investment in artificial intelligence is paying off.

Microsoft’s big bet on AI reaps reward: The Times reports first-quarter profits of $24.7bn beat Wall Street forecasts.

Microsoft cloud revenue rises on AI boom but softer outlook weighs on shares: FT reports warnings of slowing Azure growth and rising data centre costs dampen initial optimism on tech giant’s quarterly earnings.

FT: Meta sees AI spending accelerating as earnings top forecasts

Facebook company Meta shows strong growth as AI spending surges: 
Le Monde reports the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp said net profit in the third quarter was $15.7 billion – up 35% on the same period last year.

How The New York Times is using generative AI as a reporting tool: LLMs help reporters transcribe and sort through hundreds of hours of leaked audio. ARS

Alexa’s new AI brain is stuck in the lab: Amazon is eager to take on ChatGPT, but technical challenges have forced the company to repeatedly postpone the updated voice assistant’s debut. Bloomberg

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc