Good morning.
Feeling the heat yet? July 2023 is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded on earth…and possibly the hottest in 120,000 years. That’s according to data collected by the World Meteorological Organization, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and Leipzig University. Their work shows that, based on the first three weeks of the month, July is set to be 0.2 degree Celsius (about 0.4 degree Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous warmest July in 2019. And July is typically the warmest month of the year. If you are in Greece or Arizona or Mexico, this may come as no surprise. But it moves the climate change debate from predictions to lived experience.
Separately, IT professionals are clearly feeling the first great impacts of generative A.I. Another new survey out today, which was conducted for Freshworks and covered 2,000 IT professionals around the world, found that 71% of them are already using A.I. to support their workload, and 46% are using generative A.I. tools like ChatGPT. And while they have concerns about A.I.’s tendency to produce false information (41%), security and privacy issues (38%), and the potential it may lead to layoffs (28%), they also see significant benefits, including freeing up time formerly spent on repetitive tasks (49%), and freeing up employees to do more complex work (45%).
You can read the full study here. And since it is Friday, some feedback. J.A. took me to task for this sentence yesterday—“Twenty years ago, most CEOs found it fairly easy to lay low and avoid controversy.”—writing that I should have used “lie low” not “lay low.” Anyone else care to weigh in?
Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
