MONDAY KETCHUP: Dilbert vs. POC, Elon vs. people picking on Dilbert, CEOs weigh in on ChatGPT, and Warren Buffett's American Tailwind letter

Live from the ESG White Noise Machine, it’s yet another Musk-filled Monday edition of Business Pants. Joined as always by our Lord of the BS, Matt Moscardi. In today’s ESG-ruffled bedskirt called February 27, 2023: Sexy Story Updates and Warren Buffett penpal time!

DAMION1

1. Woke Data Wars?

1. ‘Dilbert’ Comic Strip Cut By Publications Over Creator’s ‘Racist Rant’

1. called Black Americans a “hate group” in a recent video

2. said he would no longer “help Black Americans.”

3. said that white Americans should “get the hell away from Black people”

4. The comic strip has already been cut from 77 other newspapers owned by the publisher Lee Enterprises

5. Dilbert Distributor Severs Ties To Creator Over Race Remarks

1. Distributor Andrews McMeel Universal said it will “never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate.”

6. Adams said in June 2020 he “lost my TV show for being white when UPN decided it would focus on an African-American audience,” indicating it was the “third job I lost for being white.”

7. Two years later, Adams tweeted that he would “self-identify as a Black woman until Biden picks his Supreme Court nominee.”

8. Dilbert newest strip out:

9. Dilbert comments on newest cartoon:

2. Elon Musk sides with Dilbert cartoonist after newspapers dropped him for making a racist rant

1. Elon Musk made the comments in defence of "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams. 

2. Adams was dropped by newspapers after making racist claims about Black Americans. 

3. Musk said the media is racist against white people, and made no criticism of Adams' claims. 

3. Fox News Is Now Mad About ‘Woke’ One-Legged Legos

1. After Lego introduced more inclusive characters into its product line, Fox News raged about the toys “going woke” because of course.

2. Apparently children with missing limbs, Down’s Syndrome, or anxiety are considered “woke” now, according to Fox News.

4. Gov. DeSantis Identifies 14 Florida School Board Members Who Are Too 'Woke'

5. Former Disney CEO privately complained to DeSantis about 'pressure' from woke left amid Florida fight: book"

1. As the controversy over the Parental Rights in Education bill was coming to a head, Chapek called me. He did not want Disney to get involved, but he was getting a lot of pressure to weigh in against the bill," DeSantis writes.

2. "We get pressured all the time," Chapek told DeSantis, according to the governor's book. "But this time is different. I haven’t seen anything like this before."

2. CEOs Rule!

1. Musk (sorry)

1. In Latest Round of Job Cuts, Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees

1. The social media platform now has a work force of less than 2,000, down from 7,500 when Elon Musk took it over in October.

2. One of Elon Musk's most loyal employees was fired at Twitter. Here's how she went from surviving layoffs to the chopping block in the span of a few months.

1. Multiple outlets reported Twitter's director of product management was let go amid new layoffs.

2. Esther Crawford posted a photo of herself sleeping on the floor after going "hardcore" under Elon Musk.

3. Crawford reportedly met 1-on-1 with Musk and was described by a colleague as his "interpreter."

2. Girl Scouts injured after man crashes Tesla into cookie stand outside a California Walmart

1. Authorities said he was driving under the influence, according to local outlets. 

2. Three people were injured, including two Girl Scouts and a 78-year-old woman. 

3. Tesla investor looking to rein in Elon Musk drops his bid for a board seat, saying the EV maker's shareholders 'have been heard'

1. Tesla investor Ross Gerber is no longer running for a seat on the EV maker's board.

2. Gerber wanted to rein in Elon Musk and has been pushing to identify potential successors to the CEO.

3. "As a friendly activist, I feel that shareholders have been heard," he said.

4. “Diversity is our Strength. Gerber Kawasaki believes that diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Based in Los Angeles, CA, one of the most diverse cities in the world, we understand that we must represent the communities we serve.”

1. 0 of 7 Executives or Managing Partners are women

2. 5 of 21 Investment Advisor Representatives are women

4. SEC insists Elon Musk still needs a ‘Twitter sitter’ to monitor his posts about Tesla

1. The Securities and Exchange Commission says Elon Musk is still in need of what it calls a “Twitter sitter” to monitor his social media posts that revolve around Tesla and other companies he owns.

5. Elon Musk-led Twitter has been sued by at least six companies for failing to pay bills

1. A startup called Writer, Inc., sued Twitter this week over non-payment.

2. The new complaint marks the sixth U.S. company to sue for non-payment of bills since Elon Musk took over the social media business last October.

3. Vendor non-payment disputes are not typical after a buyout, finance experts told CNBC. They are more typical of a financially distressed company.

6. SpaceX rocket launch bound for ISS postponed at 11th hour

2. The Chinese billionaire CEO whose disappearance rocked his bank's stock is 'cooperating' with a government probe, his firm says

1. Missing Chinese CEO Bao Fan is cooperating on a government probe, his investment bank said Sunday.

2. It's the first time China Renaissance has given a reason for Bao's disappearance earlier in February.

3. Shares in the firm plunged 28% after Bao dropped from sight, prompting some to call China "uninvestible."

3. Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman took home a record $1.27 billion for 2022

1. Schwarzman, who owns some 20% of Blackstone shares, reaped roughly $1 billion in dividends alone. He also earned $253.1 million in compensation, most of it through incentive fees and his cut of fund profits known as carried interest. 

2. The annual haul, up from about $1.1 billion a year earlier

3. His heir apparent as CEO, Blackstone President Jon Gray, collected $479.2 million in 2022. That included $182.7 million from dividends tied to a roughly 3% stake in the firm. That is an increase from the prior year. 

3. Dystopia

1. Workers’ ChatGPT Use Restricted At More Banks—Including Goldman, Citigroup

1. CitiGroup, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo have restricted employees’ use of ChatGPT, joining JPMorgan Chase, as well as Amazon and multiple major public school districts to limit the use of OpenAI’s new chatbot

2. What 14 business leaders think about AI tools like ChatGPT

1. Bill Gates

1. Gates said that AI is "every bit as important as the PC, as the internet," 

2. He said he uses ChatGPT primarily "for serious purposes" though he admits to using it for "fun things" like writing poetry. 

2. Andy Jassy - Amazon CEO

1. said he is excited to see "what's possible with generative AI"  amid the rise of tools like ChatGPT.

2. But Jassy thinks that this latest iteration of AI is nothing new. 

3. Sundar Pichai - CEO of Alphabet and Google

1. Sundar Pichai told investors during Alphabet's most recent earnings call that AI "is the most profound technology" his company is developing.

4. Satya Nadella - CEO at Microsoft

1. Satya Nadella said he is cautiously optimistic about AI's future.

2. Nadella said that humans must be "unambiguously, unquestionably" in charge of powerful AI models to prevent them from going out of control. 

3. If that happens, Nadella said "runaway AI" could be "a real problem," one that can be addressed by making models safer and "more explainable" first. That way, humans know exactly how the tech will be used. 

5. Elon Musk - CEO at Twitter and cofounder of OpenAI

1. AI is "one of the biggest risks to the future of civilization"

2. When asked about ChatGPT, Musk said that the tool is "both positive or negative" with "great promise" even if it comes with "great danger."

3. That is why Musk said AI regulation is necessary even if it "may slow down AI a little bit," which he thinks is good. 

4. "It is, I think, actually a bigger risk to society than cars or planes or medicine." 

5. In 2020, Musk insinuated that the Google-owned DeepMind project could take over the world.

6. In 2018, he said AI may be more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

7. in 2015, when Musk cofounded OpenAI with current CEO Sam Altman, saying at the time that AI was the "biggest existential threat" to humanity. 

6. Tim Cook - CEO at Apple

1. Cook told investors on an earnings call that AI is a "major focus" at Apple and that "it's incredible in terms of how it can enrich customers' lives." 

2. "We see enormous potential in this space to affect virtually everything we do... It will affect every product and every service that we have," Cook said. 

7. Warren Buffet

1. warned that AI tools have the power to disrupt society years before the release of ChatGPT.

2. In 2017, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway suggested in an annual company meeting that AI could replace jobs

3. In an ideal world, Buffett believes that widespread automation could reduce the number of hours people work which would free up time for leisure. Companies could also hire less workers, he said. 

4. Despite AI's potential benefits, Buffet said the tech "can have huge problems, in terms of a democracy and how it reacts to that."

5. "I would think the biggest value will come when it actually replaces human labor," he said about AI during a 2016 CNBC interview.

8. Charlie Munger

1. "Artificial intelligence is very important, but there's also a lot of crazy hype on the subject"

2. "AI is not going to cure cancer, it's not going to do everything that we want done, and there's a lot of nonsense in it too," he continued. "So I regard it as a mixed blessing."

3. Munger said AI can be used for tasks like insurance underwriting, but faces limitations that might not make it very helpful in the task of buying an office building, for example.

9. Gautam Adani

1. "The recent release of ChatGPT (I must admit to some addiction since I started using it) is a transformational moment in the democratization of AI given its astounding capabilities as well as comical failures," Adani wrote in a LinkedIn post.

2. "But there can be no doubt that generative AI will have massive ramifications”

3. Adani said that generative AI "holds the same potential and dangers" as the advent of chips which he said has "paved the way for precision and guided weapons used in modern warfare." 

4. "And the race is already on, with China outnumbering the US in the number of most-cited scientific papers on AI," he said.

10. John Carmack - Video game pioneer and former Meta executive

1. AI may be able to act and think like humans in just a decade

2. The virtual reality visionary said that artificial general intelligence —the ability for AI to perform complex tasks currently only achievable by humans — is AI's "big brass ring" that will grow into a trillion-dollar industry by the 2030s.

3. In turn, artificial general intelligence will leave a positive impact on the world, he said. 

4. AI can't replicate human functions like consciousness at the moment. But with the rise of tools like ChatGPT, Carmack said that the world is making progress toward that goal. 

11. Eric Schmidt - former Google CEO

1. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said AI could have as big of an impact on warfare as nuclear weapons did. 

2. "Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt in the 1930s saying that there is this new technology — nuclear weapons — that could change war, which it clearly did," Schmidt told Wired in an interview. "I would argue that [AI-powered] autonomy and decentralized, distributed systems are that powerful.

12. Vint Cerf - Father of the internet

1. AI chatbots have "an ethical issue" that he hopes investors consider.

2. "If you think 'man, I can sell this to investors because it's a hot topic and everyone will throw money at me,' don't do that," Cerf reportedly said.

3. "Be thoughtful," he added. "You were right that we can't always predict what's going to happen with these technologies and to be honest with you, most of the problem is people — that's why we people haven't changed in the last 400 years let alone the last 4,000."

4. Other fun stuff

1. Board members who don’t share a CEO’s political views are likely to leave

1. New research from the University of Notre Dame reveals a little-explored reason why board members sometimes resign: personal politics.

2. Amazon Has a Donkey Meat Problem

1. The online retailer sells products meant for human consumption that contain donkey meat. A new lawsuit claims that’s illegal in California.

3. Covid-19 Lab Leak Viewed as More Likely by US Agency, WSJ Says

1. A laboratory leak was the most likely origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to findings by the US Energy Department, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

2. A classified intelligence report provided to the White House and key members of Congress said the virus likely spread due to a mishap at a Chinese laboratory, the WSJ reported on Sunday. 

4. I'm a Stanford professor who's studied organizational behavior for decades. The widespread layoffs in tech are more because of copycat behavior than necessary cost-cutting.

1. Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer says there's another simpler reason: Companies are blindly copying each other.

5. And finally our favorite blowhard/CEO:

1. Warren Buffett slams dishonest bosses, defends stock buybacks, and nods to inflation and recession risks in his latest shareholder letter.

MATT1

Buffettpalooza is scheduled, and the Great Grandpa of Folksy Capitalism has issued his annual letter for the year! And this year, the results are… decidedly boring!

Nowhere in the letter did Warren say black people are a hate group or that Jews were pedo guys, but here are the stats:

• Top terms: Charlie, billion (15 times each)

• Second: America*

• Term links: American express, America Chevron, American bank, American Tailwind

• There are many Berkshire centimillionaires and, yes, billionaires who have never studied our financial figures. They simply know that Charlie and I – along with our families and close friends – continue to have very significant investments in Berkshire, and they trust us to treat their money as we do our own.most important of all – the American Tailwind

• Buffett’s American Tailwind: American Express (consumer debt), Bank of America (mortgage crisis), Chevron (climate change), Coca-Cola (diabetes), HP (Chinese manufactured computers), Moody’s (corporate debt), Oxy (climate change), and Paramount Global (drugs)

• America is a fat indebted diabetic who likes gas guzzling cars and streaming movies on cheap chinese computers - he’s right!  That’s our tailwind!

• Not mentioned: climate change, carbon, renewables, ESG, green… 

• Last year: wind, solar, climate change, green washing, climate conscious, carbon emissions ALL mentioned

• Takeaways: 

• Buffett does NOT like attempt to tax share buybacks and rebuts it… with zero data?

• When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).

• This letter felt like tired Buffett, which makes me want to double down on Damion’s prediction: Buffett and Munger dead in 2023?

Quote notes:

• Capitalism has two sides: The system creates an ever-growing pile of losers while concurrently delivering a gusher of improved goods and services. Schumpeter called this phenomenon “creative destruction.”

• Schumpeter’s “gale of creative destruction” was derived from the works of Karl Marx, and suggested that capitalism eventually collapses as a system - Buffett quoted socialist theory of capitalism!

• The lesson for investors: The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom.

• And hippies!