The arrival of OpenAI's ChatGPT and generative AI only a few years after the hype cycle over the metaverse has attracted both the AI bulls and bears as tech pursues its next big thing. The metaverse came with NFTs, an extension of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, and for now, it's all looking like the hype cycle warning is a good thing to heed. One thing is certain: Silicon Valley needs a next big thing, as the industry is seeing a contraction unlike anything it has experienced over the past decade, with tech leading layoffs in the economy and cost-cutting now the norm for the one sector which has been accustomed to operating with a blank check from investors. At a CNBC Technology Executive Council virtual Town Hall on Thursday, we gathered technology executives at companies across the economy -- specifically, many at companies using AI but not creating it, for example, in retail, media, legal, agriculture and logistics. We gathered a roughly equal number of AI enthusiasts and skeptics, and broke them up into groups to discuss the sudden explosion of interest in ChatGPT, and to separate as best as they could the hype from the reality.

Last town hall we had a question: What is your favorite ML algorithm? I briefly answered the question but would like to expand my answer now. My favorite is linear models. At first I thought linear models were weak and we needed something more powerful to solve tougher tasks. That is when I jumped into studying deep learning.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Social media users took to the internet following President Biden's recent town hall, drawing comparisons between his behavior and that of the cartoon character Beavis from "Beavis and Butt-head" At one point during the town hall, Biden was shown holding his arms bent out in front of him with his fists clinched. That moment was clipped and shared to social media by several people, including political commentator Mike Cernovich, who questioned, "What is Biden doing?" "Biden is straight comedy," wrote former NBA player Andrew Bogut. Other users simply shared photos of the president in the moment alongside pictures of Beavis, who is known for a hyperactive alter-ego, The Great Cornholio, that exhibits the same behavior.

REUTERS: Alphabet Inc's Google will change procedures before July for reviewing its scientists' work, according to a town hall recording heard by Reuters, part of an effort to quell internal tumult over the integrity of its artificial intelligence (AI) research. In remarks at a staff meeting last Friday, Google Research executives said they were working to regain trust after the company ousted two prominent women and rejected their work, according to an hour-long recording, the content of which was confirmed by two sources. Teams are already trialing a questionnaire that will assess projects for risk and help scientists navigate reviews, research unit Chief Operating Officer Maggie Johnson said in the meeting. This initial change will roll out by the end of the second quarter, and the majority of papers will not require extra vetting, she said. Reuters reported in December that Google had introduced a "sensitive topics" review for studies involving dozens of issues, such as China or bias in its services.

Google will change procedures before July for reviewing its scientists' work, according to a town hall recording heard by Reuters, part of an effort to quell internal tumult over the integrity of its artificial intelligence (AI) research. In remarks at a staff meeting last Friday, Google Research executives said they were working to regain trust after the company ousted two prominent women and rejected their work, according to an hour-long recording, the content of which was confirmed by two sources. Teams are already trialing a questionnaire that will assess projects for risk and help scientists navigate reviews, Maggie Johnson, the research unit's chief operating officer, said in the meeting. This initial change would roll out by the end of the second quarter, and the majority of papers would not require extra vetting, she said. Reuters reported in December that Google had introduced a "sensitive topics" review for studies involving dozens of issues, such as China or bias in its services.

Commitment to developing artificial intelligence (AI) as a national research strategy in the United States may have unequivocally defined 2019 as the Year of AI -- particularly at the federal level, more specifically throughout the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratory complex. In February, the White House established the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (American AI Initiative) to expand the nation's leadership role in AI research. Its goals are to fuel economic growth, enhance national security and improve quality of life. The initiative injects substantial and much-needed research dollars into federal facilities across the United States, promoting technology advances and innovation and enhancing collaboration with nongovernment partners and allies abroad. In response, DOE has made AI -- along with exascale supercomputing and quantum computing -- a major element of its $5.5 billion scientific R&D budget and established the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office, which will serve to coordinate AI work being done across the DOE.

Commitment to developing artificial intelligence (AI) as a national research strategy in the United States may have unequivocally defined 2019 as the Year of AI -- particularly at the federal level, more specifically throughout the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratory complex. In February, the White House established the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (American AI Initiative) to expand the nation's leadership role in AI research. Its goals are to fuel economic growth, enhance national security and improve quality of life. The initiative injects substantial and much-needed research dollars into federal facilities across the United States, promoting technology advances and innovation and enhancing collaboration with nongovernment partners and allies abroad. In response, DOE has made AI -- along with exascale supercomputing and quantum computing -- a major element of its $5.5 billion scientific R&D budget and established the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office, which will serve to coordinate AI work being done across the DOE.

The University of Oxford is hosting AI@Oxford, the institution's first major international conference on Artificial Intelligence. AI@Oxford will be held in the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End St, Oxford, OX1 1HP.The venue is directly opposite Oxford train station, less than a 1-minute walk away for those arriving by train. Please note that there is no public parking at Saïd Business School and car parking in Oxford city centre is limited; however, guests can use various car parking in the city centre or use Oxford Park & Ride services. At registration you will receive your delegate badge, a conference programme and if you have booked, a dinner ticket. Please always wear your badge.

HPCwire: Walk us through the program, give us a sense of what these AI and science town halls are all about and what they are trying to accomplish? RS: If you remember back in 2007, we had three town hall meetings – at Argonne, Berkeley and Oak Ridge – that launched the whole DOE Exascale project and so forth. At that time the idea was to get people together and ask them, for exascale, what if we could build these faster machines, what would you do with them. It was a way to get people thinking about the possibility of that and of course it took long time to get the exascale computing program going. With these town halls we are kind of asking a variation on that question. Now we're asking the question of what's the opportunity for AI in science or the application of science, particularly in the context of DOE, but more broadly because DOE's got a lot of collaborations with NIH and other agencies. So really asking the fundamental question of what do we have to do in the AI space to make it relevant for science. The point of the town halls – three in the labs and one in Washington in October – is go get people thinking about what opportunities there are in different scientific domains for breakthrough science that can be accomplished by leveraging AI and working AI into simulation, and bringing AI into big data, bringing AI to the facility and so forth. So that's the concept; it's really to get the community moving.

It's mind-blowing how much world-shaping work that gets done in hotel ballrooms. Machine learning experts regularly gather at conferences around the world to discuss noteworthy work and how to move the industry forward. Few are fortunate enough to attend in person, but you can sometimes find video online. The most recent example: The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) met in Hawaii last week, and among topics discussed was the roadmap for AI research in the United States for the next 20 years. The process to create a plan for the next two decades started in November with private workshops attended by academics and people from industry.