Data points.

Pandora's box of AI bots

For a hot minute, Microsoft looked like it would eat Google's lunch. Its languishing search engine, Bing, was being revolutionised with a sophisticated new chatbot system from OpenAI. Those hopes have now diminished because of one unexpected truth: nobody - not even AI scientists - truly understands the breadth of capabilities of artificial intelligence when it is unleashed in the wild. Early users of Bing have reported unhinged, emotional, even threatening responses to some of their queries from the AI system, which called one user a 'bad researcher' and told another newspaper writer that he was 'not happily married.' Bing - whose bot entity goes by the name Sydney - has effectively put Google's embarrassing Bard error in the shade. However, these flaws are just the tip of a much larger iceberg.

(Adapted from 'Bing Trouble: Google, OpenAI Are Opening Up Pandora's Bots,' by Parmy Olson, published on February 16, 2023)

Still continuing with crypto

The 2022 crypto crash wiped out roughly $1tr in value and scared off many investors. But not all of them. A number of everyday investors say they are continuing to put their money into crypto because they believe digital currencies are their best chance at building significant wealth. Some 39pc of crypto owners said last October that they would likely buy more, according to survey data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Some individual investors' enduring enthusiasm for crypto stems in part from a sense that traditional routes to wealth are blocked off, say investors and researchers who study their behaviour. Those everyday investors say that those paths, such as earning income, investing long-term in stocks, and buying real estate, seem less accessible and less lucrative than crypto, even with its significant risks.

(Adapted from 'The Investors Who Still Think Crypto Can Make Them Rich,' by Joe Pinsker, published on February 21, 2023, by The Wall Street Journal)

The rise of auto negative equity

The cost of new vehicles has risen 20pc since the start of the pandemic, while...