Month: March 2023

New Starbucks CEO plans to work in stores monthly

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FILE – Incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan speaks during Starbucks Investor Day 2022, Sept. 13, 2022, in Seattle. Starbucks officially has a new CEO. The Seattle coffee giant said Monday, March 20, 2023 that Laxman Narasimhan has assumed the role of CEO and joined the company’s board of directors. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear, file)

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer

Starbucks’ new CEO Laxman Narasimhan says he plans to work a half-day shift once a month in one of the company’s stores in an effort to stay close to its culture and customers.

Narasimhan, who took the reins as CEO earlier this week, said in a letter to Starbucks’ employees Thursday that he also expects the company’s leadership team to be connected and engaged in stores.

“While our performance is strong, our health needs to be stronger,” Narasimhan wrote in the letter. “We must care for the artists and the theater in the front of our stores and the factory in the back.” Continue reading

Deal to buy Silicon Valley Bank calms bank fears, for now

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A First Citizens Bank sign is seen in Durham, North Carolina, on Monday March 27, 2023. North Carolina-based First Citizens will buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month. (AP Photo/Jonathan Drew)

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — First Citizens Bank is buying much of Silicon Valley Bank, the tech-focused financial institution whose failure this month set off a chain reaction that helped rattle faith in banks around the world.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other regulators had already taken extraordinary steps to head off a wider crisis by guaranteeing all depositors in SVB and another failed institution, Signature Bank, could get their money, even if they had more than the $250,000 limit insured by the FDIC.

The First Citizens deal announced late Sunday, at least initially, seemed to achieve what regulators have sought: a shoring up of trust in other regional banks across the country.

Stock prices strengthened for First Republic, PacWest Bancorp. and other banks that investors have spotlighted as most at risk for a sudden exodus of nervous customers, similar to the run that caused Silicon Valley Bank’s failure. Continue reading

Beyond the Screen: Traveling to TV-Inspired Destinations

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By Alexandrea Sumuel

Travelers are being inspired to visit destinations they have seen on screen. According to a travel trends report, 66% of travelers have considered trips to destinations based on a movie or TV show they’ve streamed. Thirty-nine percent already have their trips booked.

The travel trends report by Expedia also reported that advice from friends and family topped streaming services by only 2%. And with such a significant impact on travel decisions, tourism agencies are dedicating more of their advertising dollars to streaming services.

TV tourism is not a new trend. Some 96% of Americans report they’ve already visited places associated with their favorite TV show at least once in their lifetime. The same study revealed that 78% of Americans would likely go on a TV or movie-themed trip in 2023. Continue reading

Army of lobbyists helped water down banking regulations

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FILE – The Silicon Valley Bank logo is seen at an open branch in Pasadena, Calif., on March 13, 2023. A handful of red state Democrats were instrumental helping Republicans secure a rollback of banking regulations sought by then-President Donald Trump in 2018. Now those changes are being blamed for contributing to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that prompted a federal rescue and stoked anxiety about a broader banking contagion. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and KEN SWEET Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — It seemed like a good idea at the time: Red-state Democrats facing grim reelection prospects would join forces with Republicans to slash bank regulations — demonstrating a willingness to work with President Donald Trump while bucking many in their party.

That unlikely coalition voted in 2018 to roll back portions of a far-reaching 2010 law intended to prevent a future financial crisis. But those changes are now are being blamed for contributing to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that prompted a federal rescue and stoked anxiety about a broader banking contagion.

The rollback was was leveraged with a lobbying campaign that cost tens of millions of dollars and drew an army of hundreds of lobbyists into the effort. It also was seeded with ample campaign contributions.

The episode offers a fresh reminder of the power that bankers wield in Washington, where the industry spends prodigiously to fight regulation and often hires former members of Congress and their staff to make the case that they are not a source of risk to the economy. Continue reading

What can ChatGPT maker’s new AI model GPT-4 do?

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FILE – Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. The company behind the ChatGPT chatbot has on Wednesday, March 15 rolled out its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4, in a new advance for the technology that’s caught the world’s attention. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — The company behind the ChatGPT chatbot has rolled out its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4, in the next step for a technology that’s caught the world’s attention.

The new system can figure out tax deductions and answer questions like a Shakespearan pirate, for example, but it still “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors.

Here’s a look at San Francisco-based startup OpenAI’s latest improvement on the generative AI models that can spit out readable text and unique images:

WHAT’S NEW?

OpenAI says GPT-4 “exhibits human-level performance.” It’s much more reliable, creative and can handle “more nuanced instructions” than its predecessor system, GPT-3.5, which ChatGPT was built on, OpenAI said in its announcement.

In an online demo Tuesday, OpenAI President Greg Brockman ran through some scenarios that showed off GPT-4’s capabilities that appeared to show it’s a radical improvement on previous versions. Continue reading