Welcome to Email News: 🤖 Bot panic

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Tonight: Even tech leaders thing the AI bots are moving a little fast. Plus: It's a pretty cracking time to be in the egg business. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

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Last updated March 29 at 7:44 PM ET

🤖 PAUSE THE BOTS?

Some of the biggest names in tech are pleading with artificial intelligence labs to hit pause on their work for at least six months, citing "profound risks to society and humanity," my colleague Samantha Murphy Kelly writes.

Steve Wozniak, Elon Musk and hundreds of tech entrepreneurs, professors and researchers signed an open letter Wednesday warning that AI labs are "locked in an out-of-control race to ... deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control." (See also: the deranged Bing bot's alter ego known as Sydney, whom Microsoft had to kill off due to its tendency to scare the bejesus out of people.)

The letter was published just two weeks after OpenAI, the group behind ChatGPT, announced an even more powerful version of the bot that's been freaking out teachers and journalists and really anyone whose job relies on, like, creating and/or verifying content. In a demo, the souped-up bot appeared to be even more advanced, drafting lawsuits, passing standardized exams and building a working website from a hand-drawn sketch.

But even the CEO of OpenAI signed the letter.

"Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources," the letter reads. "Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening."

The pause would give the companies time to develop shared safety protocols for advanced AI design. "This does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities."

WHY IT MATTERS

Every major tech company is vying to become as synonymous with advanced AI as Google is with internet searches.

Google itself, along with Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Baidu and Tencent are all jockeying to lead the world into a dystopian nightmare innovative new era of human-bot interaction that I for one fully support. Yes, let the record show that CNN's Allison Morrow loves all the bots and is definitely not terrified about them writing this newsletter better than she can.

In all seriousness: This letter reflects both genuine industry concerns about the recent rush to market with these bots, as well as a tiny smidge of neo-Luddite panic. (Perhaps that's because its authors realize a dash of panic gets the attention of those of us in the media who are wary of losing our jobs to machines that spew out surprisingly believable-seeming text in a matter of seconds. (I'd like to see a bot display that level of self-awareness, Google.))

Anyway, there are also scientists who think parts of the letter are "ridiculous."

Lian Jye Su, an analyst at ABI Research, said the letter shows legitimate concerns but that asking researchers to pause their work could be just a ploy to help signatories preserve their dominance in the field. (And honestly, I wouldn't put it past Elon Musk...)

"Corporate ambitions and desire for dominance often triumph over ethical concerns," Su said. "I won't be surprised if these organizations are already testing something more advanced than ChatGPT or [Google's] Bard as we speak."

RELATED: As many as 300 million full-time jobs could be automated in some way by the newest wave of artificial intelligence that has spawned platforms like ChatGPT, according to Goldman Sachs economists.

#️⃣ NUMBER OF THE DAY

718%

The largest egg producer in the United States saw profits surge 718% last quarter.

That's not a typo.

Cal-Maine Foods managed to more than double its revenue and rake in $323 million in profits, up from less than $40 million a year ago. That wasn't totally unexpected, but it easily topped investors' forecasts.

The reason? No surprise here, egg prices are sharply higher. And while some companies have had to raise prices to offset losses from a supply shortage, Cal-Maine, which controls 20% of the US egg market, said in its earnings report that it had no positive tests for avian flu at any of its facilities. That means Cal-Maine is doing what a lot of major companies are doing right now, jacking up prices because they can.

(Cal-Maine didn't respond to a request for comment.)

This trend is called "greedflation" and it's hardly unique to food producers. As my colleague Nicole Goodkind writes, US profit margins have expanded to levels not seen since the end of World War II.

Customers now expect price rises because they read about inflation in the news, wrote Société Générale's global strategy economist, Albert Edwards. Companies have "clearly taken advantage of rising inflation expectations" and have increased their prices even as their costs have remained the same.

🔌 FANCY CARS

Now for some technological innovations we can all get behind: Soon, you'll be able to plug in your Lamborghini. Finally, amirite?

As my colleague Peter Valdes-Dapena reports, the luxury Italian sports car designer has unveiled its first-ever supercar with a charging port.

The Revuelto is a plug-in hybrid — its Spanish name translates as "scrambled" — with dual motor system. So you can still have your V12 gasoline engine, and together the two systems can produce a total 1,001 horsepower. Whatever that means.

The price? Oh, wouldn't you like to know...

The company isn't disclosing that yet. Nor are they easing any potential range anxiety by disclosing how far the new Lambo can travel on battery power alone. (And why should they? Obviously if you tap out on the side of the highway you can just send for your helicopter pilot to come pick you up.)

New plug-in hybrid Lambos will almost certainly cost significantly more than the models they replace, said CEO Stephan Winkelmann.

Prices for the Lamborghini Aventador, the brand's last V12 model, started at around half a million dollars.

Annnnnyway, the Revuelto sounds pretty neat if you're someone who understands cars, like Peter does. Check this out:

The car will offer driving sensations ranging from loud and viciously punchy to smooth and silent. There's a menu of 13 different drive modes altogether. Front-wheel-drive low-speed cruising will be fully electric, while high-powered aggressive track driving will employ all available power from the V12 engine and electric motors.

What even are those words? I love it. Keep going...

In past Lamborghini V12 models...the engine's power was sent toward the front of the cars and the transmission was between the two seats. From there, engine power was rerouted through spinning driveshafts to the back wheels or, in many newer models, to all four wheels.

In the Revuelto, the engine points towards the back to make room for battery packs. This arrangement solves a puzzle, allowing the car, despite the addition of heavy batteries, to maintain ideal weight distribution with 44% of the car's weight on the front wheels and 56% on on the back. The gasoline engine's power, along with power from one electric motor, goes only to the Revuelto's back wheels through an eight-speed transmission.

Just reading that passage makes me feel like Marisa Tomei's character in "My Cousin Vinny."

Anyway, Peter has all the details about your next Lambo here.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

☕ Senator Bernie Sanders finally got to confront Starbucks' longtime CEO Howard Schultz over what Sanders calls the company's "illegal anti-union activities."

💰 US financial regulators were back on Capitol Hill for a second day of testimony, discussing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

🏦 UBS is bringing back its former chief executive, Sergio Ermotti, to manage the hugely complex and risky task of completing the bank's emergency takeover of rival Credit Suisse.

🛍 Macy's went shopping for a new CEO and found one at Bloomingdale's.

👟 Adidas is dropping its opposition to an attempt by a Black Lives Matter campaign to trademark a logo featuring three parallel stripes.

🏀 Foot Locker is closing 400 stores across the US.