You're tuned in to Tech Beat. Here are the stories shaping the tech world today.
California's giant pension fund CalPERS is pulling back from big tech, shifting toward private equity as investors grow increasingly nervous about whether AI spending will ever deliver the returns that have been promised. It's a signal that institutional money is starting to ask harder questions about sky-high valuations.
That skepticism may be well-earned. Elon Musk's AI-generated clip from The Odyssey landed online this week to near-universal ridicule, with critics calling it pure garbage and an utter waste of money. It's a vivid reminder that generative AI, whatever its promise, still struggles badly when it comes to nuance, beauty, and storytelling that actually moves people.
Meanwhile, a new study finds one in three young adults in the United States are turning to AI chatbots for information about drugs and alcohol. Researchers are raising serious concerns about misinformation, pointing out that when people make health decisions based on what a chatbot tells them, the stakes are far higher than a bad movie clip.
Those are the stories driving the conversation today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
