President Biden urges tech leaders to crack down on AI safety

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In a possible potential victory for the Biden administration, top players in artificial intelligence, including Microsoft, Google and OpenAI, are set to gather at the White House on Friday to pledge to build safeguards in their development of a technology that has captured Wall Street and alarmed many world leaders.

The commitments are voluntary, but industry watchers see the move as an important first step toward protecting consumers and businesses.

The White House wants companies to commit to “responsible” development. There are widespread concerns that artificial intelligence can fuel misinformation and cybercrime, and pose a national security risk. There are also concerns that the technology will steal jobs and that unethical players will misuse the intellectual property of companies, artists, and ordinary people in marketing their AI tools. These complaints have already led to a series of lawsuits.

The White House said it would work with allies abroad, including Britain, Germany, Japan and South Korea, to develop common ground for AI governance. Comes like china Develop their own guidelines For artificial intelligence and chatbots, the use of which has proliferated in recent months.

Congress has been slow to legislate artificial intelligence, despite industry calls for regulation. Biden administration, that hosted tech executives At the White House in the spring for a “frank discussion” on the future of artificial intelligence, He said She was working on “an executive order and will follow bipartisan legislation to help America lead the way in responsible innovation.”

Industry efforts are probably the quickest way to see the impact. Warranties include pledges not to release AI products commercially until they have undergone safety testing; to create a watermark system to reduce fraud and deception; publicly disclose the capabilities and limitations of the tools; and a commitment to researching the societal risks of technology.

These commitments are significantMikko Hypponen, chief research officer at software company WithSecure and cybercrime consultant at Europol, told DealBook. Among his main interests is using AI malware writers to develop powerful hacking tools. These developments are inevitable, he said, but until rules are in place, risks can be reduced through industry cooperation. Otherwise, the company’s focus will be on competing for market share and “racing is dangerous when you’re trying to do things safely and securely,” he said.

They are scheduled to attend the White House hearing: Brad Smith from Microsoft, Nick Clegg from Meta, Kent Walker from Google, Greg Brockman from OpenAI, Adam Selipsky from Amazon Web Services, Dario Amodei from Anthropic and Mustafa Suleiman from Inflection AI.

  • In other AI news: Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder who stepped down from his leadership role in 2019, is It is said back and work closely with researchers on the company’s AI initiatives.

Microsoft overcomes another FTC hurdle. The agency said it would Withdraw its administrative case Considering the software giant’s $69 billion bid for Activision Blizzard, paving the way for Microsoft to negotiate a settlement or say the FTC should drop its objections.

FTX is suing Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison and others for $1 billion. Cryptocurrency exchange seeking bankruptcy Back Funds from FTX’s founder, Mr. Bankman-Fried, and his former aides, including Ms. Ellison. The company accuses them of embezzling money before the company collapsed.

Ben Bernanke says the Fed is almost done raising interest rates. says the former central bank chief Interest rate hike at next week’s Federal Reserve meeting Highly likely but move in September ‘up for grab’. Markets have been rallying lately on hopes that the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of the tightening cycle as inflation begins to ease.

The Biden administration plans to raise drilling costs on federal land. It would be the first change in more than a century to the royalties energy companies pay to extract gas, oil and coal from government-owned land. The Department of the Interior estimates that energy companies will incur $1.8 billion in additional costs by 2031 as a result of the move.

The NFL on Thursday approved the sale of the Washington Chiefs to a group led by Apollo co-founder Josh Harris for $6.05 billion.

The deal represented a huge return for Dan Snyder, who bought the team in 1999 for $800 million. But a different number dominated the headlines: Mr. Snyder was fined a record $60 million for sexually harassing an employee.

The result came after a 17-month investigation Led by Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor and chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It concluded that Mr. Snyder sexually harassed Tiffany Johnston, a former cheerleader and marketing employee of the Leaders.

The report also found that the team intentionally withheld at least $11 million in revenue that should have been shared among the league’s 32 teams. The investigation did not rule out the possibility that Mr. Snyder directed or participated in revenue protection, but “at the very least, he was aware of certain efforts to reduce revenue sharing.”

What then? Mr. Harris will focus on improving the team’s image and explore options to repair or replace FedEx Field, the team’s home since 1997. (Local politicians have been wary of working with Snyder.) “This franchise is part of who I am and who I am as a person,” said Mr. Harris, who grew up in nearby Chevy Chase, Md. , for The Times.

French luxury holding company Kering shocked the fashion industry this week when it announced a sweeping reorganization of its upper echelons, including the departure of the longtime CEO of its flagship brand, Gucci.

The move came amid a year of declining sales and stock performance. But the group run by billionaire François-Henri Pinault is also under pressure from Bluebell Capital Partners, a London-based activist hedge fund that has tangled with luxury giants before, a person familiar with the matter told DealBook’s Michael de la Merced and The Times’s Elizabeth Paton. (Kering declined to comment.)

Activists have turned on the luxury industry in recent years. Dan Loeb’s Third Point and Artisan Partners called for a change in Richemont, owner of jewelry brands such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. But the company that has been most active lately is Bluebell, a four-year-old $250 million company that also has Target Richemont, as well as the fashion brand Hugo Boss. (Bluebell has also pushed change at BlackRock and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.)

Bluebell failed to convince fellow Richemont shareholders to add Francesco Trapani, the former Bulgari chief executive, as a director, but the conglomerate agreed to give public investors more leverage.

Bluebell has an ambitious goal for Kring. Although the hedge fund is seeking a number of changes in the conglomerate and in Gucci, it has also proposed a merger with Richemont, said the person familiar with the discussions.

But achieving the deal will not be easy. Richemont founder Johann Robert said in May that he He was not interested in merging – He had rejected such a proposal two years ago. And Pinault might not be interested either. Moreover, both luxury companies are controlled by their founding families, making it nearly impossible for outside investors to win corporate elections.

Bluebell hopes restive shareholders will join in pushing it. Kering’s share price has been eclipsed by competitors such as Hermes and LVMH over the past year, while sales It increased by only 1 percentto €5.08 billion (then $5.58 billion) in the first quarter. But Kering stock rose more than 7 percent on Wednesday after that Bloomberg first reported on the efforts of Bluebell.

– Lina KhanThe chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission told the Wall Street Journal that she turned down a job offer to become a commodities reporter for the newspaper after graduating from college.

The movie industry is preparing for what is expected to be one of its best weekends in years, as North American ticket sales are expected to pass $250 million for the first time since December 2021, according to Gower Street Analytics.

the reason? Two very different films have film executives rethinking conventional wisdom about summer blockbusters: “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig’s bubblegum-pink take on a Mattel doll, and “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s heavy three-hour biopic of Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the creation of the atomic bomb.

Consumers bought more than 200,000 movie tickets back-to-back, a double benefit known as “Barbenheimer,” According to the National Association of Theater Owners, Industrial Lobby Group. “There’s nothing like this I’ve ever seen,” said Bob Bagby, CEO of B&B Theaters, which operates more than 50 locations in the Midwest.

‘Barbie’ could make up to $189 million this weekend while “Oppenheimer is expected to earn $55 million to $64 million, according to movie tracking service The Quorum. Both are departures from the superhero movies and sequels that studios tend to bet will be summer hits. “Normally in the summer the studios are very risk averse,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at comScore. “You want most commercial films.”

Barbie is based on a doll that everyone knowsbut This is not enough to guarantee a successful movie. Giving the reins to Ms. Gerwig, the acclaimed director of “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” said Dergarabedian, rather than turning it into a rom-com (although star power The main cast includes Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and A.J A widespread marketing attackdefinitely helped).

Big blockbusters usually compete at the box office, but Barbie and Oppenheimer seem to be helping each other out. Even if a relatively small audience has seen both films, “it cannot be denied that the profile of the two films has skyrocketed,” Mr. Dergarabedian said.

But it is not clear if Barpenheimer is a repeatable playbook. “Part of this was by design,” Mr. Dergarabedian said. “Some of it by accident. And, you know, the movie gods played a role.”

deals

  • Blackstone head Jonathan Gray Thought the deal drought might end soon. (foot)

  • CVC Capital Partners It raised 26 billion euros ($29 billion) for the largest private equity fund in history. (bloomberg)

Policy

  • Twitter will call out Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, over her communications with regulators as part of the Appeal of the FTC approval order. (Reuters)

  • …and Elon Musk chirp that the company will stop using the tube emoji in response to press requests for comment. (Twitter)

  • The emails of the US ambassador to China were reportedly hacked through an operation linked to Chinese espionage. (Wall Street Journal)

The best of the rest

  • millet, the ‘poor man’s’ super grain, Moment passes, appearing in Michelin-starred restaurants and at the White House. (bloomberg)

  • “Why, of all places, does Switzerland import so much cheese?” (The New York Times)

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