Institutional Investor (March 20)
Across sectors companies are tripping “over themselves to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into their operations. Not to be left out, investment managers too are crowing about their adoption of generative AI, typically in the form of large language models (LLMs).” This, however, “is a complex and expensive project with considerable investment and business risks and ethical considerations.” There should be less concern on “how these models might disrupt the investment management industry” and more focus on building “a methodology to assess the processes and procedures implemented by managers to ensure the ongoing utility and reliability of their LLMs.”
Tags: Adoption, AI, Assess, Complex, Disrupt, Ethical considerations, Expensive, Generative, Investment managers, LLMs, Methodology, Risks, Sectors
Washington Post (May 2)
“As generative artificial intelligence becomes eerily lifelike and gives rise to chatbots that can draft letters, write computer code or create songs, experts have warned about its ability to put people out of jobs. A Goldman Sachs report in late March said generative AI could significantly disrupt the global economy and subject 300 million jobs, particularly white-collar ones, to automation.”
Tags: AI, Automation, Chatbots, Computer code, Disrupt, Experts, Generative, Global economy, Goldman Sachs, Jobs, Lifelike, People, Songs, White collar
Institutional Investor (September 23)
“The pushback against environmental, social, and governance investing by red state politicians isn’t yet slowing down many asset managers’ expansions into strategies that have been among the most popular in recent years.” There is “no doubt the anti-ESG movement is gaining traction and could disrupt the industry,” but it’s still “business as usual” for “many global managers targeting investors in the U.S.”
Tags: Anti-ESG movement, Asset managers, Disrupt, Environmental, Governance, Investing, Investors, Politicians, Popular, Pushback, Red state, Social, Strategies, Targeting, Traction
New York Times (January 16)
China’s zero-tolerance COVID policy has been “highly effective, but the extreme transmissibility of the Omicron variant poses the biggest test yet,” and threatens to disrupt supply chains. “The potential for setbacks comes just as many companies had hoped they were about to see some easing of the bottlenecks that have clogged global supply chains since the pandemic began.”
Tags: Bottlenecks, China, Clogged, Covid, Disrupt, Effective, Omicron, Supply chains, Transmissibility, Variant, Zero tolerance
The Guardian (August 13)
“Forget doom-laden headlines, the dollar has not gone into terminal decline.” In fact, the dollar’s resiliency has been upheld even though “Donald Trump’s administration has done more than any in living memory to disrupt US trade” and has transformed the nation into an unreliable alliance partner. And yet, “the currency’s international role has not diminished significantly.” The simple truth is “there is no alternative. The euro is not an alternative…. Nor is the yuan a viable alternative.”
Tags: Alliance partner, Alternative, Currency, Decline, Diminished, Disrupt, Dollar, Doom, euro, Resiliency, Trade, Trump, U.S., Unreliable, Yuan
New York Times (March 29)
The Covid-19 crisis has awakened “a sleeping giant” in China. “How the ruling Communist Party manages the coming months will help shape how hundreds of millions of young people see its authoritarian political bargain for decades to come.” The “generational awakening… could match the defining effects of World War II” and it “could disrupt the social stability on which the Communist Party depends.”
Tags: Authoritarian, Awakened, CCP, China, COVID-19, Crisis, Disrupt, Sleeping giant, Social stability, WWII, Young
Bloomberg (December 9)
Hong Kong is facing the “‘worst ever,” as layoffs and store closures multiply. “More than 5,600 retail jobs could be lost and thousands of stores shut down over the next six months, as pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong continue to disrupt sales during the crucial festive period.”
Tags: Disrupt, Hong Kong, Layoffs, Pro-democracy, Protests, Retail jobs, Sales, Store closures, Worst ever
CNN (October 8)
“Wall Street’s top activist investors are raising lots of cash and gearing up for battle over the next year…. The group see more opportunity to disrupt the consumer discretionary sector, which includes retailers, than in any other industry.”
Tags: Activist, Cash, Consumer sector, Disrupt, Industry, Investors, Opportunity, Retailers, Wall Street
CNN (October 31)
U.S. “lawmakers should be conducting a serious audit of our nation’s intelligence and cybersecurity capacities and strengthening areas of weakness to ensure our country is well-equipped to withstand future efforts from state actors, like Russia, to disrupt our democratic processes…. We’ve seen these efforts underway in Europe for years, and should learn from and even improve upon what they are already doing.”
Tags: Audit, Cybersecurity, Democratic processes, Disrupt, Europe, Intelligence, Lawmakers, Russia, U.S., Weakness
Wall Street Journal (August 13)
Some Internet connections have been disrupted this week and more bumps are expected. “The situation echoes—if faintly—the hubbub over the feared Y2K computer glitch in the late 1990s, when experts warned that systems could fail because their dating functions hadn’t been designed to handle the turn of the century.” The total number of Internet paths through the global web has grown to approximately 500,000, exceeding the number some old network routers can accommodate. “More websites and broadband firms are likely to feel the pinch in coming days as they hit the seemingly arbitrary limit,” necessitating the upgrade or replacement of older routers.
Tags: Broadband, Connections, Disrupt, Internet, Paths, Replacement, Routers, Upgrade, Websites, Y2K