Top moments from Axios' AI+ Summit in New York
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Axios had some of the biggest voices on artificial intelligence on our stage Wednesday in New York City talk about the global race to dominate AI, the state of play for enterprise AI, and how industries are adapting to the rapidly changing landscape.
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📱 WndrCo founding partner Jeffrey Katzenberg warned that the impact of teens' unsupervised tech time is "destroying a generation" while appearing with Aura founder & CEO Hari Ravichandran. Ravichandran's digital security firm Aura is known for its online safety tools for families and individuals.
- Katzenberg, whose notable work includes "Shrek" and "The Lion King," also acknowledged how AI is changing the entertainment business — and that those who don't learn how to use the tools will get left behind. He likened AI to the computer graphics revolution in animation.
- "AI isn't going to replace people. It's going to replace people that don't use AI," he told Axios' Ina Fried.
Lumen Technologies president and CEO Kate Johnson talked about being "toe forward" in using AI tools at her company, from sales to customer service and operations to engineering.
- Lumen recently pivoted to supporting the infrastructure of enterprise AI services.
- "This is how we're transforming the company, and it's also how we're positioning our critical infrastructure to help other companies," she told Axios' Dan Primack.
🐕 The Weather Company CEO Rohit Agarwal wants AI to help forecasters be as specific as giving guidance on when to walk your dog.
- The AI might know "you're likely to have a pet, that you're likely to choose a morning or afternoon walk, and that you have a type of dog that actually needs a lot of exercise," Agarwal told Axios' Ashley Gold.
- "If we actually mix all of that signal together and deliver you a point of intelligence, that can be really powerful and useful," he said.
Zoom in: The Weather Company wants to use AI to give people more precise insight "on what to do with that forecast in order to live the life that you want to live."
- Since all businesses depend on weather to run their operations or serve customers, Agarwal also sees AI as an effective tool to help them.
🤖 Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) is bullish on using AI to train New York state employees and understanding how the technology can supplement their work and help them be more responsive to the public.
- "I'm not looking to eliminate their jobs," she told Axios' Ina Fried.
- "I want people have a better customer experience when they come into a DMV or other offices. So I see great potential here, and I leaned hard into this," she added.
🇨🇳 Lux Capital co-founder Josh Wolfe told Axios' Dan Primack that the best way to beat China on AI is to "make sure every single young" person here is super well versed at using the models.
- He called it a "fool's errand" to try to win "in terms of restricting chip access."
- "People are going to invent around it. They're gonna develop better algorithms, different chips, different models," he added.
⏩ Actor and entrepreneur Joseph Gordon-Levitt posed that a "gargantuan force" like YouTube could set a new standard by protecting creators instead of using their work to train AI without compensation.
- Imagine if Google said: "We want to be a platform where there still is an incentive for all these awesome creators who have made our platform what it is for the last two decades to keep creating," Gordon-Levitt posed.
- "If Google would step up and do that maybe others would follow suit," he said.
Go deeper: Behind the Curtain: Your AI survival kit
Editor's note: This story will be updated with additional developments.
