FTI Consulting News Bytes – 02 June 2023

This week’s news

Nvidia in the $1 trillion club

Nvidia became the first chipmaker to hit a $1 trillion valuation on Tuesday, joining an elite group of US tech stocks including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon that have previously reached the milestone. The stock’s value tripled in less than eight months as ChatGPT and other generative AI tools fueled investor interest in AI. Nvidia’s high powered chips are essential to building generative AI systems, substantially cutting the time required to train large language models. On Monday, the chipmaker also unveiled a new supercomputer platform that signalled the start of a “new computing era” where “everyone is a programmer” according to CEO Jensen Huang. Nvidia’s projected sales are expected to rise to $11bn in the three months ending in July which would exceed Wall Street’s previous forecasts by more than 50%, according to the Financial Times. Morgan Stanley described Nvidia’s outlook upgrade as “the largest dollar revenue upside in the history of the industry.”

Does AI spell the end of creativity?

In a busy week for Nvidia, media group WPP also announced a partnership with the chipmaker to develop a platform that will use generative AI to produce images and videos for advertisements more quickly. The Times’ Katie Prescott cautions that generative AI could spell an end to business models dependent on intellectual property and risk undermining the UK’s creative industries which contributed £109 billion to the economy in 2021. However, reassurance came in the form of Succession star Jeremy Strong a.k.a. Kendall Roy, who quipped “AI ain’t gonna write Succession”, reports The Times. Succession writer Jesse Armstrong’s “understanding of human beings, their complexities, fallibilities and pathos” is what enables him to write such killer lines, according to Strong. It’s not over for creatives just yet.

Or the end of humanity altogether?

Many of the biggest names in AI have signed a statement warning that it could lead to the extinction of humanity. In a short statement, published on the webpage of the Centre for AI Safety, leaders warned that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” The statement has been signed by more than 350 AI executives, according to the Financial Times, including the biggest names in the field such as Sam Altman of OpenAI, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind and Dario Amodei of Anthropic. Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, responded to these claims insisting AI could bring “massive benefits to the economy and society,” reports the Financial Times. He expressed ambitions for Britain to become a global centre for AI, promising to play a “leadership role” in drawing up “safe and secure” rules to monitor its use.

Vinted hints at IPO 

In an interview with Sifted this week, Thomas Platenga, the CEO of secondhand clothes marketplace Vinted, acknowledged it is “technically IPO-ready”, but downplayed financing choices as “mere details”. He remains focused on the “end game” of building “a business that will be a strong European tech company, that will be there for decades, that will pay tax nicely and that will be a useful force in society.” While secondhand shopping is sustainable, shipping – which makes up 97% of Vinted’s operational footprint – is less so. However, Vinted is trying to “make a shift in the industry” so that pick-up and drop-off points, which have a smaller environmental footprint than home delivery, become the norm. Sifted’s Zosia Wanat admitted to being won over by the Vinted story. Perhaps, this is one to watch.

Robotic worms wriggle out 

Researchers at GE are developing a robot that mimics the muscles and movement of the humble earthworm, reports the BBC. The “self-propelling, extremely flexible, highly steerable” robot, capable of tunnelling through soil could soon be used to install fibre internet or electric vehicle charging infrastructure underground. Professor Ozkan-Aydin, an electrical engineer at the University of Notre Dame in the US, also suggested the technology could be used in search and rescue efforts, pointing to the recent earthquakes in Turkey where a tiny wriggling robot with a camera could have been useful for determining where to focus efforts. While further research is needed to replicate essential features of earthworm biology, the advances so far show that the smallest things in nature can inspire the biggest advances in the tech sector.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Victoria Coren-Mitchell, writer and broadcaster: ”Did we definitely need to hear about another thing that might bring about the destruction of humanity? I could have done with a couple of weeks off, to be honest.”
• TechCrunch: Snapchat launches a new generative AI feature, “My AI Snaps,” for paid subscribers.
• Mark Gurman, Bloomberg Chief Correspondent: Apple is testing two new Mac desktops, dubbed Mac 14,13 and Mac 14,14, with M2 Ultra and M2 Max chips. This comes ahead of WWDC where Macs will be featured and a plan to start accepting Mac Studio trade-ins on Monday. Full story coming soon.

Number of the Week

$4tn  – The surge in technology stocks this year fuelled by a rush of interest in artificial intelligence, according to The Guardian

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