What we’re reading (4/10)
“Generative AI Has An Intellectual Property Problem” (Harvard Business Review). “While it may seem like these new AI tools can conjure new material from the ether, that’s not quite the case. Generative AI platforms are trained on data lakes and question snippets — billions of parameters that are constructed by software processing huge archives of images and text. The AI platforms recover patterns and relationships, which they then use to create rules, and then make judgments and predictions, when responding to a prompt. This process comes with legal risks, including intellectual property infringement.”
“Lawmakers Trade Bank Stocks While Working On U.S. Bank-Failure Fallout” (Wall Street Journal). “Two lawmakers reported trades in bank stocks last month as they worked on government efforts to address fallout from two of the largest bank failures in American history. The disclosures, by a New York Republican and an Oregon Democrat, mark the latest instance of congressional stock trading intersecting with official business. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R., N.Y.) bought stock in a regional bank before a subsidiary agreed to take over Signature Bank’s deposits following its closure. Days before she bought the stock, she said she met with financial regulators to discuss the bank’s closure.”
“After Layoffs, Tech Stocks Boom” (Axios). “Tech stocks have always been volatile, and it's never a good bet to blame their fluctuations on any single cause. Here are some possible explanations for the resurgence, more than one of which might apply: Wall Street is rewarding tech for all those layoffs. Investors applaud ‘discipline,’ and thinner payrolls could mean more profits to come. No, it's the wave of enthusiasm in the industry for ChatGPT and generative AI is driving the market up. Many observers are framing the new generation of AI as the biggest leap forward in tech since the iPhone's 2007 debut. Or maybe the market just oversold tech in 2022 and it's correcting course now.”
“The Latest On Hybrid Work: Who Is WFH And Who Isn’t” (CNN Business). “As the economy slows, are employers starting to regain the upper hand in negotiations with employees and job seekers? Pay is always an issue, of course, but in the wake of the pandemic, so too is how much time employers want people to work on site versus how much they are willing to let employees work remotely.”
“Housing Is So Unaffordable That Banks Are Losing Money For Each Mortgage They Finance For The First Time Ever” (Insider). “In 2022, independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks banks lost an average $301 for every mortgage they financed, the MBA said in a recent report. That represents a 113% decrease from last year's average income of $2,339 per mortgage, and is the first time that banks posted negative profits for financing home loans since the MBA began recording profits in 2008.”
