THE BIG STORY

Cities Faced with Half-Empty Offices

With offices remaining half empty as most companies have settled into a hybrid work strategy, frustration is growing in cities that are suffering from declining real-estate values, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Currently, office vacancy rates in America are at 18 percent, a figure last seen during the savings and loan crisis of the 1990s, Vox reports. And many organizations are planning to downsize as leases expire.

The latest study by WFM Research found that days worked from home nationwide are near 28 percent, up from 5 percent before Covid struck and relatively unchanged in recent months.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

CEO Behind ChatGPT Advocates Regulations

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during his first congressional testimony that artificial intelligence could “cause significant harm to the world,” the Washington Post reports. Altman called for a new government agency charged with creating standards among other steps to address mounting concerns that generative AI could distort reality and create unprecedented safety hazards.

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BUSINESS

A Tall Order for Twitter's New CEO

Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, previously worked to convince brands to shun online ads and instead buy TV spots. Now she must do the reverse—while also handling her boss, Elon Musk, Wired reports.

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MEDIA

Once a Digital Dynamo, Vice Files for Bankruptcy

Vice Media filed for bankruptcy on Monday, culminating a descent from new-media star status to a cautionary tale of the problems facing the digital publishing industry, the New York Times reports. A group of creditors could buy the company for $225 million, a fraction of its peak estimated value of $5.7 billion.

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QUICK HITS

• A growing number of designers are finding that AI tools can enhance the creative process. Plus, they can boost productivity and streamline design workflow, Shantanu Kumar writes on UX Planet.
• The Creativity and Innovation Network has published some new findings on key LinkedIn algorithm recommendations, based on analysis of 2,000 posts. Among the tips: post 1-3 times per week, with at least 18 hours between posts.
• Cyber attacks continue to strike local government, with two East Coast communities among the latest victims: Lowell, Mass., the fourth-largest city in the state, and Spartanburg County, a community of roughly 327,000 residents in South Carolina.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong."

‍—OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, in congressional testimony
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