It has been an exciting week in New York. Yesterday I joined Dani Burger on Bloomberg TV to talk about the issue of the day, AI safety. We had just fielded a snap poll on what Americans want to see from the U.S. and China on AI ahead of President Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping. Key findings include 87% of Americans (across party lines) are concerned about AI safety and wanting action; 67% believe the US and China should work together on AI safety; 51% urge the President to take action on AI safety even if China does not want to cooperate. I was also struck by the fact that 30% said they would switch their vote in the midterms to candidates who share their views on AI. The bottom line? The public is more concerned about AI safety than they are about China.
The results dovetailed with our monthly National AI Monitor, which shows Americans are net positive about AI right now (especially at work), and our fourth quarterly survey of the public, investors, and corporate leaders, which for the first time also captured the small business perspective. Here we also found that AI safety outranks U.S. competitiveness as a top concern for all three audiences. Where the three diverge is their expectations around the level of investment. 64% of the public and 56% of investors want companies to devote over 5% of their AI investments to safety and security. Only 22% of corporate leaders currently report spending at that level, and 65% say they are at 5% or below.
We also joined forces this week with Amalgamated Bank and Worth Media to host a private executive roundtable on AI’s impact on the workforce. The session ran under Chatham House Rule, so I can’t quote participants. But every leader in the room, from every sector, is in dual execution and learning mode. Testing solutions quickly, and measuring whether they work, is the new reality on the ground. This morning I am speaking at Mastercard’s Data for Inclusive Growth Forum to further explore how corporate America can adapt to AI quickly enough to drive innovation and unlock opportunity for all.
The fact is, all stakeholders seem to want speed, value creation (for them) AND safety. This is the challenge being set. Our flagship JUST ETF shows that companies best able to do this will prosper – as of September 23, it has outperformed the Russell 1000 equal-weighted index by an incredible 87.5% since inception in March 2019.
More to come.
Be well,
Martin
53% of corporate leaders believe safety & security is a top concern, exceeding concerns around competition and growth. Explore the data here.
Fortune speaks to the CEO of Hilton, who reveals that AI has only made entry-level hospitality jobs more competitive, with 12,000 applications received for 72 internship slots this year.
Indeed releases a surprising study that shows pay for more AI-exposed jobs is actually rising.
Axios looks at how China and the US might be creating an AI “red phone” – a former cold-war era guardrail to get immediate contact with world leaders in case of a major AI-driven catastrophe.
Politico examines why California voters in particular are turning on AI.
The Charlotte Observer reports that Amazon is investing $1.5 billion to improve wages for U.S. operations workers.
The CEO of Dollar General is seeing shopping behaviours change not only among typical low-income customers, but the middle class as well. Yahoo! Finance has the story.
The Wall Street Journal looks at all the ways the AI build-out is becoming the biggest U.S. construction project in history.
