Friday's Fast Five: Week of 9.1
The A.I. Revolution Is Coming. But Not as Fast as Some People Think. (The New York Times): From steam power to the internet, there has always been a lag between technology invention and adoption across industries and the economy. Across corporate America, Generative A.I., the software engine behind ChatGPT, is seen as an exciting new wave of technology. But companies in every industry are mainly trying out the technology and thinking through the economics. Widespread use of it at many companies could be years away.
Small Multifamily Homes Were Disappearing. Now States Are Scrambling to Revive Them (Bloomberg): Construction of low-density housing like duplexes hovers near record lows, as states pass zoning reform to tackle the affordable housing crisis. Housing construction in the US has long focused on single-family homes and large apartment buildings, leaving a deficit of everything in between—sometimes referred to as “middle housing” by housing experts and advocates.
Is Nvidia the Next Cisco? (The Irrelevant Investor): Nvidia is not the first giant tech company to trade at a rich valuation. The one that people often compare it to is Cisco, one of the darlings from the dot com era. We can’t compare things to the future, so we look to the past.
Rates Are Up. We’re Just Starting to Feel the Heat. (The Wall Street Journal): Homeowners. Car buyers. Landlords. Big businesses. Here’s who stands to lose—and in some surprising cases, win—as interest rates stay high in the years ahead.
Is the AI boom already over? (Vox): Generative AI is a powerful technology that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and the chatbots built with this new technology are one of the most accessible tools for consumers, who can directly access and try them out for themselves. But recent reports suggest that, as the initial burst of excitement and curiosity fades, people may not be as into chatbots as many expected.