MONDAY MATTERS | News Worth Knowing Sept 14th
News and topics that will shape the week ahead:
A viral post by a formerly employed Anthropic engineer has dominated the conversation in Washington and Silicon Valley over the past few days. The topic? AI is too dangerous and may kill us all if it isn’t immediately regulated. The heads of OpenAI and Anthropic agreed with this assessment and are calling on Congress to consider legislation that will provide strict oversight over their companies and others. But many thought leaders on both coasts view this as a cynical attempt at regulatory capture that would effectively create a duopoly. Expect the AI safety debate to continue into this week.
This Wednesday at 2 p.m., the Federal Open Market Committee will decide whether to raise interest rates, potentially by a quarter of a percentage point. With oil now trading above $100 a barrel and the latest CPI reading at 3.4%, the odds of a Fed rate hike are increasing. A more hawkish Fed could put downward pressure on equity markets, as many of the large technology companies are particularly sensitive to higher interest rates.
The war with Iran is escalating, as Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen lob bombs at one another. Importantly, a meeting between Iran and the Gulf states set for today has been postponed due to the Iraqi drone bombing of the Saudi East-West pipeline, which is now closed. This pipeline served as an alternative route to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and get oil to market.
