Hi you,

The two weeks between these dispatches are feeling longer and longer each time. Is it because I miss you? Surely that’s part of it. Is it because I’ve aged multiple years due to the inconceivable incompetence of American Airlines, which seems committed to not flying their planes but rather shuffling passengers from one broken aircraft to another at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport? Or is it because I’ve had to interact with the U.S. healthcare system more than usual recently due to an injury? 

The answer may be all the above, but I’m trying to focus on gratitude. I’ve arrived back in Southern California where the rains have stopped for a few hours. I’m able to recover for a few weeks in the midst of a grueling shoot schedule for the second season of my PBS show, America Outdoors. I got to swim with manatees! 

In the next edition, I’ll have some new perspectives on how Gen Z is navigating shifts in social media and what happens if ByteDance can’t spin TikTok. But first, a few reflections on the latest version of ChatGPT and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. No, the bank with an all-white executive team and single Black board member was not undone by a focus on diversity…

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A.I., SVB & “Woke” Finance Fears

Reflections on the new ChatGPT, “doughnut economics,” D.E.I. backlash, and what the right got wrong about Silicon Valley Bank.

BARATUNDE THURSTON

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence—the discovery of mind-bending use cases and launch of new businesses—has warped my sense of time. Suddenly, leaps in computing that previously took years seem to be unfolding in weeks. When I first wrote about ChatGPT, back in December, I described my excitement about how A.I. could potentially transform art and industry, but also my fears about mistakes and unintended consequences along the way. It was this same concern, after all, that led Sam Altman and Elon Musk, among others, to found OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and Dall-E, with a mandate to develop these tools in the safest possible way...

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT

Godwin’s Crucible

ABC News and the frontline of the ego management wars.

DYLAN BYERS

Pence & Sensibility

Decoding Pence’s putative presidential campaign.

TARA PALMERI

Netflix Plot Twist

On the economic Catch-22 pricing Netflix out of major films.

MATTHEW BELLONI

DeSantis’s Trojan Horse

On DeSantis’s foreign affairs play & the N.R.A.’s vanishing act.

TINA NGUYEN