The release of ChatGPT in late 2022 was the starting gun for an unprecedented AI race. In this talk, a veteran tech journalist offers an insider’s perspective on the mad dash to cash in on this AI moment. This presentation features bold-faced names such as Musk, Gates, Zuckerberg, and Altman and is packed with tantalizing anecdotes and tales from Silicon Valley’s front lines. That includes Google’s stumbles, Microsoft’s resurgence, and the high-stakes competition they're waging with founders and venture capitalists seeing this as their moment to strike it rich. This clear-eyed yet optimistic exploration reveals how AI is reshaping our world. Perfect for general-interest audiences curious about the personalities and forces driving this latest revolutionary technology.

When Gary Rivlin started writing his 10th book, he figured he'd be hitting the road to chronicle a great small-business die-off but instead witnessed something uplifting which made the resulting book, SAVING MAIN STREET, a surprisingly upbeat tale. Despite all the forces aligned against small businesses, none of the businesses Gary followed went under during the pandemic. TJ, the chef-owner of an Italian restaurant just outside of Scranton; Vilma, the immigrant-owner of a hair salon in the small Pennsylvania city of Hazleton; three black siblings crafting high-end chocolates in the Bronx; Glenda, the owner of a “non-life sustaining” gift shop in rural PA. They each had his or her challenges and dark moments but they displayed grit and fortitude and creativity and all survived.

And it wasn’t just them. The stats show that far, far fewer small businesses went under than initially feared.  To a super-strain of entrepreneur —that had made it to 2020, surviving chains, big box stores, the internet, globalization, etc. — Covid just proved the latest threat to overcome. Plus, something you don't hear very often: government assistance worked. PPP, for instance, was ill-conceived, inefficient and skewered toward bigger players, but it's amazing what happens when you direct nearly $1 trillion to help small businesses and also provide hundreds of billions in stimulus dollars to much of the country. 

Gary shares these stories and the lessons your business, no matter the size, can learn from their perseverance and strength in the face of great adversity.