AI Is Rapidly Advancing, but the Question Is, Can We Keep Up?

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
AI Is Rapidly Advancing, but the Question Is, Can We Keep Up?
Evan Xie

One way to measure just how white-hot AI development has become: the world is running out of the advanced graphics chips necessary to power AI programs. While Intel central processing units were once the most sought-after industry leaders, advanced graphics chips like Nvidia’s are designed to run multiple computations simultaneously, a baseline necessity for many AI models.

An early version of ChatGPT required around 10,000 graphics chips to run. By some estimates, newer updates require 3-5 times that amount of processing power. As a result of this skyrocketing demand, shares of Nvidia have jumped 165% so far this year.

Building on this momentum, this week, Nvidia revealed a line-up of new AI-related projects including an Israeli supercomputer project and a platform utilizing AI to help video game developers. For smaller companies and startups, however, getting access to the vital underlying technology that powers AI development is already becoming less about meritocracy and more about “who you know.” According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk scooped up a valuable share of server space from Oracle this year before anyone else got a crack at it for his new OpenAI rival, X.AI.

The massive demand for Nvidia-style chips has also created a lucrative secondary market, where smaller companies and startups are often outbid by larger and more established rivals. One startup founder compares the fevered crush of the current chip marketplace to toilet paper in the early days of the pandemic. For those companies that don’t get access to the most powerful chips or enough server space in the cloud, often the only remaining option is to simplify their AI models, so they can run more efficiently.

Beyond just the design of new AI products, we’re also at a key moment for users and consumers, who are still figuring out what sorts of applications are ideal for AI and which ones are less effective, or potentially even unethical or dangerous. There’s now mounting evidence that the hype around some of these AI tools is reaching a lot further than the warnings about its drawbacks.

JP Morgan Chase is training a new AI chatbot to help customers choose financial securities and stocks, known as IndexGPT. For now, they insist that it’s purely supplemental, designed to advise and not replace money managers, but it may just be a matter of time before job losses begin to hit financial planners along with everyone else.

A lawyer in New York just this week was busted by a judge for using ChatGPT as part of his background research. When questioned by the judge, lawyer Peter LoDuco revealed that he’d farmed out some research to a colleague, Steven A. Schwartz, who had consulted with ChatGPT on the case. Schwartz was apparently unaware that the AI chatbot was able to lie – transcripts even show him questioning ChatGPT’s responses and the bot assuring him that these were, in fact, real cases and citations.

New research by Marucie Jakesch, a doctoral student from Cornell University, suggests that even users who are more aware than Schwartz about how AI works and its limitations may still be impacted in subtle and subconscious ways by its output.

Not to mention, according to data from Intelligent.com, high school and college students already – on the whole – prefer utilizing ChatGPT for help with schoolwork over a human tutor. The survey also notes that advanced students tend to report getting more out of using ChatGPT-type programs than beginners, likely because they have more baseline knowledge and can construct better and more informative prompts.

But therein lies the big drawback to using ChatGPT and other AI tools for education. At least so far, they’re reliant on the end user writing good prompts and having some sense about how to organize a lesson plan for themselves. Human tutors, on the other hand, have a lot of personal experience in these kinds of areas. Someone who instructs others in foreign languages professionally probably has a good inherent sense of when you need to focus on expanding your vocabulary vs. drilling certain kinds of verb and tense conjugations. They’ve helped many other students prepare for tests, quizzes, and real-world challenges, while computer software can only guess at what kinds of scenarios its proteges will face.

A recent Forbes editorial by academic Thomas Davenport suggests that, while AI is getting all the hype right now, other forms of computing or machine learning are still going to be more effective for a lot of basic tasks. From a marketing perspective in 2023, it’s helpful for a tech company to throw the “AI” brand around, but it’s not magically going to be the answer for every problem.

Davenport points to a similar (if smaller) whirlwind of excitement around IBM’s “Watson” in the early 2010s, when it was famously able to take out human “Jeopardy!’ champions. It turns out, Watson was a general knowledge engine, really best suited for jobs like playing “Jeopardy.” But after the software gained celebrity status, people tried to use it for all sorts of advanced applications, like designing cancer drugs or providing investment advice. Today, few people turn to Watson for these kinds of solutions. It’s just the wrong tool for the job. In that same way, Davenport suggests that generative AI is in danger of being misapplied.

While the industry and end users both race to solve the AI puzzle in real time, governments are also feeling pressure to step in and potentially regulate the AI industry. This is much easier said than done, though, as politicians face the same kinds of questions and uncertainty as everyone else.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been calling for governments to begin regulating AI, but just this week, he suggested that the company might pull out of the European Union entirely if the regulations were too onerous. Specifically, Altman worries that attempts to narrow what kinds of data can be used to train AI systems – specifically blocking copyrighted material – might well prove impossible. “If we can comply, we will, and if we can’t, we’ll cease operating,” Altman told Time. “We will try, but there are technical limits to what’s possible.” (Altman has already started walking this threat back, suggesting he has no immediate plans to exit the EU.)

In the US, The White House has been working on a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” but it’s non-binding, just a collection of largely vague suggestions. It’s one thing to agree “consumers shouldn’t face discrimination from an algorithm” and “everyone should be protected from abusive data practices and have agency over how their data is used.” But enforcement is an entirely different animal. A lot of these issues already exist in tech, and are much larger than AI, and the US government already doesn’t do much about them.

Additionally, it’s possible AI regulations won’t work well at all if they aren’t global. Even if you set some policies and get an entire nation’s government to agree, how to set similar worldwide protocols? What if US and Europe agree but India doesn’t? Everyone around the world accesses roughly the same internet, so without any kind of international standard, it’s going to be much harder for individual nations to enforce specific rules. As with so many other AI developments, there’s inherent danger in patchwork regulations; it could allow some companies, or regions, or players to move forward while others are unfairly or ineffectively stymied or held back.

The same kinds of socio-economic concerns around AI that we have nationally – some sectors of the work force left behind, the wealthiest and most established players coming in to the new market with massive advantages, the rapid spread of misinformation – are all, in actuality, global concerns. Just as the hegemony of Microsoft and Google threaten the ability of new players to enter the AI space, the West’s early dominance of AI tech threatens to push out companies and innovations from emerging markets like Southeast Asia, Subsaharan Africa, and Central America. Left unfettered, AI could potentially deepen social, economic, and digital divisions both within and between all of these societies.

Undaunted, some governments aren’t waiting around for these tools to develop any further before they start attempting to regulate them. New York City has already set up some rules about how AI can be used during the hiring process while will take effect in July. The law requires any company using AI software in hiring to notify candidates that it’s being used, and to have independent auditors check the system annually for bias.

This sort of piecemeal figure-it-out-as-we-go approach is probably what’s going to be necessary, at least short-term, as AI development shows zero signs of slowing down or stopping any time soon. Though there’s some disagreement among experts, most analysts agree with Wharton professor and economist Jeremy Siegel, who told CNBC this week that AI is not yet a bubble. He pointed to the Nvidia earnings as a sign the market remains healthy and not overly frothy. So, at least for now, the feverish excitement around AI is not going to burst like a late ‘90s startup stock. The world needs to prepare as if this technology is going to be with us for a while.

LA Tech Week 2025: Sunday’s Event Lineup

Here's the Sunday, October 19th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

ARTS DISTRICT

3:00 PM

BEL AIR

3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

BURBANK

6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

CULVER CITY

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

4:30 PM – 7:30 PM

INGLEWOOD

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

  • Spinovation: The Future Is Femme, The Future is Frequency: See Details Here
    Sonder Impact, Black Women Spin, Sip & Sonder

KOREATOWN

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

MARINA DEL REY

12:00 PM

  • Sunday Tech Brunch
    Sawubona

MID CITY

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • Women in Cleantech Hike and Network: See Details Here
    Women in Cleantech and Sustainability

SANTA MONICA

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

3:45 PM

4:00 PM – 7:30 PM

  • OFF THE HOOK Santa Monica Seafood Festival: See Details Here
    Spin PR Group, City of Santa Monica, Tech St.

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • Pritam: A Musical Legend - Live in Concert: See Details Here
    American South Asian Network

7:00 PM

  • Building AI workflow editor in React with Workflow Builder SDK: See Details Here
    Workflow Builder

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

  • Unlock Apple's Corporate Advantage for your Startup!: See Details Here
    iStore by St. Moritz

TOPANGA CANYON

3:00 PM

  • Dreamore Hike and Picnic: LA Tech Week: *Invite Only*
    Dreamore

VENICE

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

  • Coffee, Walk, and Schmooze: See Details Here
    JFE (Jews For Entrepreneurship) Network

VIRTUAL (LA)

10:00 AM

  • Level Up with LinkedIn: A Student’s Guide to Networking & Opportunities (Virtual Event): See Details Here
    FIMAC

10:00 AM

WEST ADAMS

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

Download the dot.LA App


LA Tech Week 2025: Saturday’s Event Lineup

Here's the Saturday, October 18th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

BEVERLY HILLS

2:00 PM

CENTURY CITY

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

CULVER CITY

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

1:00 PM

DTLA

7:00 PM

  • {MiniMax x Nakid x SkyPortalx}: TECH/MOTION/MUSIC/ART: See Details Here
    MiniMax (Hailuo AI)

10:00 PM – 2:00 AM

EL SEGUNDO

10:00 AM

  • Venture on the Green: *Invite Only*
    BLCK VC

4:00 PM

INGLEWOOD

7:00 PM

  • Valar Atomics, Durin and Discipulus Ventures - Night With A Nuclear Reactor: See Details Here
    Valar Atomics, Durin, Discipulus Ventures

MARINA DEL REY

8:30 AM

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • LOST iN Sunset Sail: Navigating the Tides of the Creator Economy & Media: See Details Here
    LOST iN

PASADENA

9:00 AM

PLAYA VISTA

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

SANTA MONICA

7:00 AM

9:00 AM

  • Pedal & Network: Tech Cyclists @ LA Tech Week 🚵: See Details Here
    Instafill.ai

9:30 AM

  • Getty Center Guided Tour & (Optional) Photography Scavenger Hunt: See Details Here
    NEW MOON Impact Productions

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

11:00 AM – 2:15 PM

12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

1:30 PM

  • Self-Defense in Court and the Streets: See Details Here
    Santa Monica Striking, Luri Inc.

2:00 PM

  • SMARTUP 500: THE FIRST AT TECH WEEK LA - Launching the world’s first Startup Ranking: See Details Here
    Smart Times

2:00 PM

  • NLPs (No Lame Panels) The Creator X Founder Rooftop Party: See Details Here
    Startup Village, Sanctuary

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

4:00 PM – 6:30 PM

  • Just Do It?: Helping Founders Perform Like Olympians: See Details Here
    Elite Psychology Group

5:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • The Future of Hospitality: Poetry, Provenance & Passports: See Details Here
    Villa Kitchen, Airble, We Speak Dance, Techstars San Francisco

7:00 PM

  • 🚀 Investor x Founder Open Mic Pitches: See Details Here
    Feathr, Los Angeles Fun Events

7:00 PM

  • Life is a Pitch - LA Edition: *Invite Only*
    DeepMyst

TOPANGA CANYON

5:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • Walk&Jam: Use AI to make art while hiking Topanga Canyon: See Details Here
    Formhaus llc, Wonderland Immersive Design

TORRANCE

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

  • Crunches & Conversations Presented by The Differentials and KIS Training Studios: See Details Here
    The Differentials, KIS Training Studios

VENICE

1:00 PM – 4:30 PM

  • Beyond the Language Barrier: Exploring AI's Next Frontier: See Details Here
    Medusa AI

VENICE BEACH

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

  • SŨRFED Club @ Venice Beach: Founders, Creators, Investors share the waves: See Details Here
    SŨRFED Club, Go Vitamins

WEST ADAMS

9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

  • Funders Shaping Democracy, AI & Media: See Details Here
    New Media Ventures, New Rising Ventures

WEST HOLLYWOOD

4:00 PM

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

9:30 PM

  • Vibe Check Comedy Show, Tech Week Edition! @ Hollywood Improv: See Details Here
    Vibe Check Comedy

For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

Download the dot.LA App


LA Tech Week 2025: Friday’s Event Lineup

Here's the Friday, October 17th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

ARTS DISTRICT

8:30 AM – 12:00 PM

  • Power Day: Ideas, Pitches, Connections: See Details Here
    Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)

6:00 PM

  • WEB3 GAMING IS DEAD - Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Plassa Capital, Yee-Haw Monster Trucks

BEVERLY HILLS

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

4:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • So you went viral, Now what? (pt II): See Details Here
    Verci, Study Fetch, TechSpace

8:00 PM

  • Private Pool: GP x LP x FO: *Invite Only*
    Visionlist Commons , Bay Area Innovest

BRENTWOOD

8:00 AM

  • Founders & Investors Hike: See Details Here
    Salehpour Legal, Technology Founders of America

CARSON

11:45 AM

  • Lightspeed x SVB Porsche Experience: *Invite Only*
    Lightspeed Venture Partners, SVB

CULVER CITY

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

11:00 AM

1:00 PM

  • Surf Parks & Wave Pools: From Doja Cat to Mark Zuckerberg: See Details Here
    Surflytics

8:00 PM – 12:00 AM

EL SEGUNDO

11:30 AM – 2:00 PM

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

HOLLYWOOD

10:00 AM

  • AI, Revenue, and Reality: How Fortune 500s Work With Startups That Ship: See Details Here
    Sunrise AI, OpenTable

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

  • Unplugged: LA Tech Week Recharge Experience with TAY × Checked Out: See Details Here
    TAY Fitness, Checked Out

9:00 PM

INGLEWOOD

8:00 AM

  • TCSI Presents: Caffeine & Connections: See Details Here
    The Cyber Security Intellects Nonprofit

LONG BEACH

7:00 AM

MALIBU

10:00 AM

  • Great Leaders Podcast & Profiles: See Details Here
    NEW MOON Impact Productions, Origin Studios

12:30 PM

MARINA DEL REY

9:00 AM

  • Keeping Your Freedom as a Founder: Real Talk on Funding: See Details Here
    Lighter Capital

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

  • D-Wave Research Day & Hackathon!: See Details Here
    USC Information Sciences Institute, D-Wave

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • The Sky is Not the Limit: All About Aerospace: See Details Here
    Sunstone Management, USC Viterbi Startup Garage

PASADENA

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM

  • Deep Tech Entrepreneurship Pillars of Pasadena Tech: See Details Here
    Innovate Pasadena, Pasadena SBDC, City of Pasadena

PLAYA VISTA

9:00 AM

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

  • Vision to Venture - AI Media Showcase powered by Google AI: See Details Here
    Google

SANTA MONICA

7:00 AM – 8:30 AM

  • Signal Run : RTC x Wildwood VC: See Details Here
    Run Tech Club, Wildwood Ventures

7:30 AM

8:45 AM – 10:45 AM

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • Slash Burn Rates & Scale Your Startup: See Details Here
    Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA)

9:00 AM

  • Driving a Digital Ecology Relay: What is at Stake: See Details Here
    The PORT GLOBAL, GLOBAL PORTAL INSTITUTE

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

  • The Enduring Value of Inclusive Capital: See Details Here
    Founders Registry. Nervana

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

10:30 AM

11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

  • Advisors to Investors Lunch: Venture Capital for enterprise leaders: See Details Here
    Collinear Capital, Worlds

12:00 PM

  • Powerhouse Capital & a16z speedrun Investor Lunch Mixer: See Details Here
    Powerhouse Capital, a16z, speedrun

2:00 PM

  • Where Robotics Meets Heart - Embedding Family Values in a Future with AI: See Details Here
    Trove, Puerto Rico Blockchain Association, MindfulBytes

2:00 PM

3:00 PM

3:00 PM

3:00 PM

  • Workshop: Create An Enterprise Chatbot and Unlock the 70% of Data Data You’re Not Using: See Details Here
    Aparavi

4:00 PM

5:00 PM – 10:00 PM

5:30 PM

5:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • USC Alumni Founders & Investors: See Details Here
    USC Alumni Entrepreneurship Network, Techstars

6:00 PM

  • Social Currency Series/Greenlit presents PitchPop: See Details Here
    Social Currency Series, Greenlit

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:30 PM

6:30 PM – 10:00 PM

6:30 PM

  • Lets get the LA Bioeconomy brewing: See Details Here
    Founders, Friends & Fermentation, Saku Biosciences

7:00 PM – 11:30 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • Liquid Equity 2: The Premiere Gathering for Founders, Creator
    Coeus Collective

7:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • For the Love of Tech | Speed Dating for Tech Professionals: See Details Here
    Feathr, Los Angeles Fun Events

7:00 PM

SOUTH LA

3:00 PM

TORRANCE

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • The Future of Space & Security Panel: See Details Here
    Northwood Space, Anduril Industries, Impulse Space, Astranis

VENICE

9:00 AM – 10:45 AM

9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

11:00 AM

11:30 AM – 2:30 PM

12:30 PM

  • Creative Partners: Human + AI Storytelling: See Details Here
    Othelia, Primordial Soup

2:00 PM – 3:45 PM

5:00 PM

  • EarthHouse: Critical Minerals, Mobility & Modern Power: See Details Here
    The Strategye Group, Alpha Sierra One

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • Pizza+Soda: *Invite Only*
    Schmoozd , The KINN

7:00 PM

VENICE BEACH

2:00 PM – 6:30 PM

5:00 PM

8:30 PM – 2:00 AM

VIRTUAL (LA)

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM

3:00 PM

  • Government of Alberta: ProcurementAsCode // Done in 60 Seconds: See Details Here
    Government of Alberta

4:00 PM

  • Stop Hitting Yourself 🥊: See Details Here
    Stop Hitting Yourself, HOWDY, Company Policy, Snowbird Global

WEST HOLLYWOOD

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

6:00 PM

WESTSIDE

5:00 PM

5:30 PM – 8:30 PM


For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

Download the dot.LA App


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