With Power Comes Responsibility
AI for DC
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Welcome (back) to The Prompt. AI isn’t well understood, but we learn a lot in our work that can help. In this newsletter, we share some of these learnings with you. If you find them helpful, make sure you’re signed up for the next issue. And for some behind-the-scenes context about our approach and how we appreciate our subscribers, check out this Free Press take.
[News] With power comes responsibility
Today, OpenAI joined Oracle and Vantage to break ground on the Stargate campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin that we announced in October. The project will create 4,000 skilled construction jobs, and has vocal support from the leadership of the Milwaukee and Wisconsin Building Trades Councils. It also will add another 1,000-plus long-term jobs.
In the ongoing debate over AI data centers, some criticisms have been in good faith; others haven’t. But we can all agree that communities deserve for these infrastructure projects to benefit them. That’s why we see this Wisconsin site as a potential model.
The project has two important features. First, when it comes to energy, Vantage is covering the cost of the new power infrastructure for the campus, including paying a separate electricity rate, to help protect customers from higher bills. They’re also adding new zero-emission energy in the state (solar, wind, and battery storage), with 30% of that made available to Wisconsin customers – meaning they’re adding more energy to the grid.
Second, the Wisconsin campus is designed to be water-positive, using closed-loop cooling that requires minimal water, and supporting local projects that restore more water than the campus uses. On top of that, the entire effort will include planting more than 2,000 native trees and other native landscaping to achieve a net gain in biodiversity.
This is a blueprint for how to newly industrialize America in the AI era. We should seize this moment to bring back manufacturing, increase the demand for construction and skilled labor, and modernize our grid to make it more flexible for consumers – not cede the opportunity to other global competitors. The Stargate campus in Wisconsin points to a better way to build AI infrastructure to benefit everyone, including the hired workers and businesses, the local electricity consumers, and the local community.
[Insight] How ‘solopreneurs’ use ChatGPT
Hundreds of small business owners gathered in five US cities last month to receive hands-on instruction and learn new tips on using ChatGPT. As our new report on their use of ChatGPT details, more than a third of these small-business owners were “solopreneuers” – self-employed people running operations with no employees.
The US has roughly 30 million solopreneurs, according to the US Census. Collectively, they generate about $1.7 trillion in revenue (almost 7% of US GDP), and they represent a significant share of all small businesses in America.
One-person firms can be fragile, but they also have the most to gain from AI. When a single individual is the product team, the finance team, the marketing department, and the compliance office, small tasks proliferate and mistakes are costly. Common pain points show up again and again for solopreneurs: taxes (often tied to Form 1040 Schedules C or SE), pricing, marketing, technical troubleshooting, and legal requirements. Time is tight, experts are expensive, and the to-do list never shrinks.
That helps explain why solopreneurs are about 4x as likely as other ChatGPT users to ask for financial and tax guidance, and 2x as likely to ask about career advice or legal/regulatory questions. When time is precious, ChatGPT helps compress busywork and surface the next best step, giving one-person firms more time for customers, revenue, and practicing their craft.
Vaneese Johnson was one of the many solopreneurs who attended the Small Business Jam. Johnson owns On the Move Careers and was an early adopter of ChatGPT. At the Jam, she worked to build an AI-assisted workflow to turn business cards into leads, using her phone’s camera to capture each card, upload the contact information, and create a system to track follow-ups. Watch here for what other solopreneurs and small business owners took away from our Small Business Jam.
[About] Introducing OpenAI Academy for news orgs
The Prompt’s bench of authors and contributors is loaded up with former journalists, and we routinely think about how we would have incorporated AI and ChatGPT into our old jobs. So we’re extra psyched about today’s launch of OpenAI Academy for News Organizations, in partnership with the American Journalism Project and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. It’s a hub for journalists, editors, and publishers using AI.
At the outset, this Academy will provide on-demand training (including “AI Essentials for Journalists”), practical use cases, open-source projects, and guidance on responsible uses.
[Disclosure]
Graphics created by Base Three using ChatGPT.
Very cool to see the focus on community and the environment 😎
Love this issue, especially small business piece.,