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Recently, Donald Trump was once again inaugurated as President of the United States, and the start of what I anticipate will be a pivotal year for our nation. And while its increasingly difficult to know exactly what to expect, there is one thing I believe has become incredibly clear over the past year: The most important issues facing our country wont be solved with more incessant bickering and polarization. I dont come to this conclusion out of some perceived sense of moral superiority. I, too, have found myself taken in and even angered by recent political dramas. The fact is that division can be intoxicating, particularly when it relates to issues that were passionate about. However, passion alone wont help our struggling neighbors, and remaining divided will only prevent holistic solutions to fixing inequality and uplifting those in our communities who need it most. Understand the issues at hand For decades, socioeconomic inequality has continued to impact tens of millions of Americans and has remained one of our countrys most difficult challenges. And make no mistake, this is an issue that impacts people on all points of the political spectrum, and that will need to be addressed with increasing urgency regardless of which party is in power. According to the Federal Reserve, the wealth gap in this country continues to widen. Within the second quarter of 2024, the top 10% of households by wealth had an average of $6.9 million each, holding 67% of total household wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of households by wealth had an average of $51,000, only holding 2.5% of total household wealth. In parallel, housing affordability in this country is also getting worse, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimating a current shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for the nearly 11 million extremely low-income families in the U.S. Given these statistics, it should come as no surprise that the incumbent Democratic administration ended up losing the working class vote. Whether you blame that on post-pandemic inflation or weak policies around workforce development, it doesnt change the fact that the overall economy was a major motivating factor for American voters and instrumental in ushering in a leadership change. Change isnt achieved through division To say that Donald Trump has traditionally been a polarizing figure would be an understatement. For years, his spontaneity on social media alone has reliably drawn the criticism of politicians and business leaders of all political affiliations, and on occasion even resulted in Trump being banned from multiple platforms. However, judging by a slew of public endorsements and financial contributions from prominent tech leaders, it appears that at least one industry is willing to put their differences aside in the name of progress. More specifically, weve learned of several hefty contributions to Trumps inaugural fund. Influential leaders like Mark Zuckerberg are signaling a growing recognition that remaining divided is a poor strategy for driving change. While there are many conclusions that can be taken from this development, I think the most important lesson here is that real progress requires having allies in political leadership, not adversaries. Weve seen how these prominent leaders can drive social and economic change in the U.S., including but not limited to tech, innovation, philanthropy, and more. So when it comes to addressing inequalities, I believe these are the leaders who will catalyze real change and we need them in our corner. Come together to drive progress As a career entrepreneur and nonprofit philanthropist, Ive been privileged to witness first-hand how providing a hand up to our neighbors can uplift an entire community, which we do at Business for Good each day. But Ive also come to understand that positive change is much more readily achieved through unification rather than division. In fact, after years of working with hardworking business owners from marginalized communities, I can say with confidence that most care far less about political divisiveness than they do about action and results. Additionally, and perhaps more than anything, what these communities wantand needis simply for their voices to be heard. We can see this truth clearly reflected in how certain demographic groups voted this election, particularly young, working-class Black and Latino men. Citing everything from the benefits of Trumps tax policies for small businesses to the inability of Democrats to truly deliver on their promises to minority communities, both demographics went for Trump even more confidently than in 2020, with Trump earning close to double the share of votes from Black men under 45 than he did in the previous election. So, as we look to move forward to the next phase of Business for Good, the focus will remain on addressing inequities, but on a bigger scalehoning in on the housing crisis, economic equality, and broader community development. With Inauguration Day in the rear-view mirrorand most leaders would probably agreeI dont believe that this second Trump term will be all forward progress; there are still a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainty about the actions he will take over the next four years. What I do think, however, is that solving the socioeconomic challenges of our time isnt about being a Democrat or a Republican, but rather about working across party lines with the shared recognition that unification is needed now more than ever to drive meaningful change, and that the path toward a better future for all Americans will be far better undivided. Ed Mitzen is cofounder of Business for Good.
Category:
E-Commerce
Recently, Chinese startup DeepSeek created state-of-the art AI models using far less computing power and capital than anyone thought possible. It then showed its work in published research papers and by allowing its models to explain the reasoning process that led to this answer or that. It also scored at or near the top in a range of benchmark tests, besting OpenAI models in several skill areas. The surprising work seems to have let some of the air out of the AI industrys main assumptionthat the best way to make models smarter is by giving them more computing power, so that the AI lab with the most Nvidia chips will have the best models and shortest route to artificial general intelligence (AGIwhich refers to AI thats better than humans at most tasks). No wonder some Nvidia investors are questioning their faith in the unlimited demand for the most powerful AI chips in the future. And no wonder some in AI circles are questioning the world view and business strategy of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the biggest evangelist for the brute force approach to ever-smarter models. The assumption behind all this investment is theoretical . . . the so-called scaling laws where when you double compute, the quality of your models increases in kind of the same wayits kind of a new Moore’s Law, says Abhishek Nagaraj, a professor at the University of CaliforniaBerkeleys Haas business school. (Moores Law said that software developers could expect microchips to become predictably more powerful as chipmakers packed more transistors into their microchips.) And so if that holds, it effectively means that whoever controls the infrastructure will control a lot of the market, adds Nagaraj. Thats why companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and X are building data centers as fast as they can. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last year said he needs to raise $7 trillion to build the data centers needed to reach AGI. OpenAI, Microsoft, Softbank, and Oracle said recently theyll spend up to $500 billion over the next five years to build new data centers for AI in Texas. Attracting the money to do that, however, is something only closed-source companies like OpenAI can do, Nagaraj points out. OpenAIs private equity backers (such as Andreessen Horowitz) and big tech backers (such as Microsoft) are willing to bankroll the AI infrastructure (chips, software, data centers, electricity), which OpenAI says it needs, if it keeps the recipes of its models secret. Thats the moat around their investment, after all. Establishing such a moat was the main reason OpenAI stopped being an open AI company back in 2019. DeepSeek shares the weights of its models (the mathematical calculations at each connection point in their neural networks) and allows any developer to build with them. After essentially giving away its research and eschewing a moat, DeepSeek was never going to attract the private equity funding needed to bankroll hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips. Adding to its challenge were the U.S. chip bans that reserved the most powerful AI chips for U.S. companies. So DeepSeek found ways to build state-of-the-art models using far less computing power. In doing so, it appears to have collapsed Altmans assumption that massive computing power is the only route to AGI. Not everybody thinks so, of course. Particularly in OpenAI circles. I would never bet against compute as the upper bound for achievable intelligence in the long run, says Andrej Karpathy, one of the original founders of OpenAI, in an X post. Not just for an individual final training run, but also for the entire innovation/experimentation engine that silently underlies all the algorithmic innovations. Altman, too, seemed undeterred. We will obviously deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor! We will pull up some releases . . . , he posted breezily on X. But mostly we are excited to continue to execute on our research roadmap and believe more compute is more important now than ever before to succeed at our mission. OpenAIs mission is AGI. Lots of powerful chips will be needed, if only because the general demand for AI services is going to grow exponentially. More data centers will be needed just to respond to calls from millions of AI-infused apps built on OpenAI APIs, he added. Some have suggested that DeepSeeks discovery of ways to build more compute-efficient advanced AI models could reduce the barrier to entry and allow far more developers to build such models of their own, therefore pushing up demand for AI chips. For example, DeepSeeks most recent model, DeepSeek-R1, provided the open-source world with a reasoning model that appears to be comparable to OpenAIs state-of-the-art o1 series, which applies more computing power at inference time, when the model is reasoning through various routes to a good answer. In a statement Monday, Nvidia gives DeepSeek props for creating reasoning models using widely available Nvidia GPUs, and adds that such models require significant numbers of the GPUs as well as fast chip-to-chip networking technology. The latest DeepSeek models have only been available to developers for a short time. Just like when Meta introduced its open-source Llama models, it will take some time to understand the real economics of building new models and apps based on the DeepSeek models. Its possible that more widely distributing the ability to build cutting edge models could put more brains to work on finding novel routes to AGI and, later, superintelligence. Thats the good news. The bad news may be that powerful models, and the means to build them, will become more available to people who might use them maliciously, or who may not be fastidious about using accepted safety guardrails. But DeepSeek is not perfect. The DeepSeek chatbot has in anecdotal cases emphatically misidentified itself as the creation of OpenAI or Microsoft. Nor can the chatbot speak freely on all subjects. Like all Chinese AI companies, DeepSeek operates within the Peoples Republic of China’s regulatory framework, which includes restrictions on how language models handle politically sensitive topics, says David Bader, a professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. These constraints are evident in how their models respond to queries about historical events and government policies. If you ask the chatbot about the Tiananmen Square protests, for example, it responds with, Lets talk about something else.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Empire State Building is nobodys idea of a hidden gem. The 1,472-foot Art Deco landmark of stone and steel dominates the streetscape and world view of New York Cityand all of pop culture. From King Kongs battle with biplanes to the annual ESB Run-Up to its iconic 86th Floor Observatory, the Worlds Most Famous Building is both myth and monolith. This alone could not have explained what happened last June, though: The Empire State Building Observatory Experience was ranked the No. 1 attraction in the world in Tripadvisors 2024 Travelers Choice Awards: Best of the Best Things to Do. At 93 years young, the skyscraper became ostensibly the top attraction on the planet. This was not the work of an algorithm, or even Swiftonomics (though Taylor did once pay a visit). Rather, the ranking took root in a multiphase, design-led transformation of the Observatory Experience, fueled by the recognition that spaces and places must evolve to meet peoples shifting relationships across physical, digital, and immersive realms. This might seem like an isolated success, with few applicable lessons beyond the museums and attractions sector. But since we and our creative partners at Journey, Thinc Design, and Beneville Studios completed the $165 million reimagination of the Observatory Experience, we have come to appreciate lessons that any brand, in any sector, can adopt to deepen connections with their customers. Here are four that (wait for it) rise to the top. 1. REANIMATE YOUR STORY As we began our building-wide modernization work in 2008, we thought creatively beyond the building itselfmore specifically, the international brand and relevance of the concept of the Empire State Building. We could have hung archival photos or played King Kong on a loop in our galleries. Instead, we chose to immerse visitors in the lore and complexity of this singular structure. Key moments from its construction, its place in popular culture, and its industry-leading deep energy retrofit became onramps to immersive storytelling. Rather than watch two-dimensional, black-and-white footage of Kong 102 stories above the city streets, we welcome visitors to climb into his fist as he zooms in close, nostrils flared. Visitors dont pore over lengthy exhibit descriptions; they peer inside coin-operated-style viewfinders and observe vendors hawking five-cent apples and traffic officers directing streetcars that trundle through the frame. Banks, retailers, museums, healthcare clinicsthey all contain powerful stories that, through smart, tactical applications of design and technology, could forge stronger connections to the people they serve. 2. GET MULTIDIMENSIONAL How many times must we read about the blurring lines between physical and digital? Our collaboration spun off a more instructive idea: Rather than blur lines, build linkages. The physical and digital components of the reimagined Observatory Experience address every dimension of human interaction. Those viewfinders set this principle to motion. Peering through them, visitors become participants in a nearly century-old scene that slipped the bounds of time. That sensation is far more powerful than any discreet piece of hardware or software. Brands should take a cue and combine their digital and physical assets in ways that create transformative new experiences. Fifth Avenue is hardly a galaxy far, far away. That didnt stop a Star Wars villains-inspired experience from taking over the Empire State Building last year. Fittingly, The Empire Strikes Back played on the 80th floor while life-size LEGO statues of Darth Vader and Darth Maul beckoned selfie-takers. An unoccupied space at the base of the building housed a fully immersive Hasbro takeover that thrilled die-hard fans. Through it all, host and guests derived valueand had a blast. When an IP as exhaustively excavated as Star Wars can build new linkages across the fan experience by showing up in unexpected ways (and places), it is a clear sign that most brands can, and should, as well. 3. DONT BREAK NEW GROUND We began with an assessment of underutilized sectors on our second and 80th floors; the queue areas for Observatory-bound elevators; and even the elevators themselves. Here, for the better part of a century, lay the seeds of a completely reimagined visitor experiencea sort of prequel to the views on the 86th and 102nd floors. Developers might derisively call this creative reuse, but as we recontextualized these assets, we did more than fill space; we opened new portals of experience and immersion. How many department stores have elevators or escalators? Through the creative application of technology and design, these can become dynamic, immersive vessels for brand storytelling and wayfinding that produce tighter bonds between store and customer. No elevators or escalators? Convert underutilized space into zones of experimentation that help dimensionalize the experience. 4. TAKE THE LONG VIEW A funny thing happens nowadays when visitors finally reach the Observatory floors. Spectacular views used to be the main course, but since we inaugurated the new visitor experience, they feel like the cherry on top. Despite the still-breathtaking sightlines, you know where many of our visitors now tag their Instagram snaps? With Kong, 84 floors below, as well as with statues of brave men who built the building in the immersive exhibit dedicated to their work. Talk about your internal pivots. Perhaps this is the most powerful lesson of all: A brand never has to top out. If we redefined how people experience 365,000 tons of stone, glass, and steel, imagine what you can do for your brand. Andrew Zimmerman is CEO and a cofounder of Journey. Anthony E. Malkin is chairman and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.
Category:
E-Commerce
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