Jordan Novet

@jordannovet.cnbc.com

3131 Followers 416 Following

Technology reporter @cnbc.com in San Francisco. jordan.novet@versantmedia.com

screenshot of Anthropic's Claude app. below "Evening, Jordan" but directly above the prompt box, there is a box you can hit the X button on that says "Claude Fable 5 is currently unavailable." a "Learn more" link is to the right of that message text
OpenAI blog screenshot. text says: In this report, we describe two clusters of ChatGPT accounts likely originating from China that we banned after they used our models in support of apparent covert influence operations that promoted narratives in an attempt to manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and wider tech policies. The first cluster generated social media comments and images claiming that data center buildouts for AI were increasing electricity prices for average families. We named this cluster the “Data Center Bandwagon” campaign. ... The targeting of OpenAI and US data center buildouts is significant not because the operation appears to have shifted public opinion, but because it shows PRC-origin influence operators testing narratives against AI infrastructure – a foundation of US technological leadership, economic growth and the broader democratic AI ecosystem. The operation sought to exploit and amplify existing public concerns about energy prices and local impacts of data center development, but we found no evidence of meaningful breakout beyond its own activity. Foreign influence operations have long sought to latch onto existing local issues and sincerely held beliefs, using them to build credibility, amplify divisions or exacerbate public distrust. In this case, the operators attempted to covertly insert themselves into an ongoing American debate about the future of the country’s AI capabilities while hiding who they were and what motivated them.
Graphic title: Many of the gains in share price and earnings have been dramatic. Change versus June 2024 (%). Red line is price. Blue line is earnings per share over next 12 months. The time periods for each of the six charts in the graphic are 2024 to mid-2026. in five of the six charts, the red line has been consistently above the blue line. the companies are Comfort Systems, Siemens Energy (price lagging behind earnings per share), Bloom Energy (very high increase going above the expected area of the graphic), Corning, Hochtief and Caterpillar. source is FactSet, data is to 6/4/26. screenshot from Financial Times article
six browser tab icons are shown in a screenshot. one is classic red Youtube with the play button in the middle. three of the icons is the new Google Sheets favicon, which is a bluish-green gradient with vertical and horizontal lines crossing
screenshot of Business Insider tech article by Katie Notopoulos. Headline: Sending a perfectly-written email? That's so low-end. picture of vintage typewriter. Caption: Good news for CEOs and other powerful people: No more Wite-Out needed! DBenitostock/Getty Images. Date: March 12, 2026
screenshot of TechCrunch article. text is as follows: “It was five founders and a deck, and it was our first hardware investment in 10 years,” Vishria told TechCrunch about that first meeting. “I had been a venture capitalist for like, 18 months.” (Prior to being a VC, Vishria sold the social browser startup he co-founded, RockMelt, to Yahoo for a reported $60-$70 million in 2013.) Benchmark is famously selective in the companies it chooses, and backs hardware companies so rarely that Vishria was kicking himself for giving time to Cerebras. “Why did I take this meeting?” he kept muttering. At one point, he even messaged his assistant, who manages his calendar, and bugged her: “Why did you let me take this meeting?” Vishria recalls. But his grumpy attitude vanished by the third slide, as co-founder and CEO Andrew Feldman laid out Cerebras’ grand plans.
chart go down. from 73% to 66%, between 1QFY24 and 3QFY26.
screenshot of WSJ article with the title "Can We Handle the Magnificent 10?" the "Magnificent 10" is highlighted in blue. byline and date and first article are below. the paragraph says: Tech stocks are pointing to a cautious rebound from Tuesday’s OpenAI-inspired selloff. The real test will be after the bell when four of the Magnificent Seven stocks report quarterly results. Before that, though, we’ll hear what’s likely to be Jerome Powell’s last press conference as Fed chair. It might not be his last as a governor. Will he stay or will he go?
screenshot of Financial Times lead. text is as follows: Farmer John Yeley watched fertiliser prices spiral after the start of the Iran war with dismay. That quickly gave way to anger. Before hostilities broke out in February, the anhydrous ammonia he spreads on his cornfields cost $800 a ton. Now it’s $1,050. That means he’ll have to fork out $53,000 more for the stuff than before the war — “a cost increase that was not anticipated at all”, Yeley said. “I’m upset that in these trying times, when the ag sector is already hurting bad, it was the last thing we needed stacked on top of us,” he added. Yeley, who farms 3,500 acres of corn and soyabean near Marshall, Illinois, is not alone. Across the US, farmers are reeling from a huge surge in the price of crop nutrients triggered by the Iran war — at a time when the economics of farming were already under pressure.
This study identifies deficiencies in how generative AI-driven chatbots respond to everyday health and medical queries in misinformation-prone fields. Approximately half of all outputs were deemed problematic, citations were frequently incomplete or fabricated, and chatbot response readability tended to be complex. Models also responded to adversarial queries without adequate caveats and with rare refusals to answer. As the use of AI chatbots continues to expand, our data highlight a need for public education, professional training and regulatory oversight to ensure that generative AI supports, rather than erodes, public health.
screenshot of Berkeleyside article. the following words are highlighted: "BART has really limited funding, and we have to think about the priority" the full passage in the screenshot is below: Why hasn’t BART updated George and Gracie? George and Gracie are proprietary to Lucent Technologies, which went out of business in the mid-2000s. The company is no longer around to provide updates, and BART doesn’t have access to the source code to make its own changes. The only thing that can be updated is the text that George and Gracie read. “BART has really limited funding, and we have to think about the priority,” Trost said. “Things like replacing our trains are more important.
screenshot of Intuit TurboTax banner ad placed through Google. the ad has a bright pink banner at the top that says "Beat the April 15 tax deadline!" the rest of the ad, on a dark backdrop says "File your taxes free" in big letters, with the word "free" in red. it's for Intuit TurboTax Free Edition. there's a "File now" button. it says "Simple Form 1040 returns only. See if you qualify."
chart from Bloomberg article. title: Microsoft Headcount Flatlined as Revenue Exploded. Subtitle: Thousands of jobs have been cut as the company invests in AI. x axis is years from 2007 to 2025. y axis is percentage growth. yellow line representing revenue growth is up and to the right. black line is employee growth, which has grown more gradually and flattened in around 2022. growth numbers are cumulative
screenshot of e-edition of San Francisco Chronicle. Shows rankings of sourdough breads in San Francisco. 5 is Kantine, 4. is Tartine, 3. is Arsicault and 2. is Jane the Bakery
screenshot of a page showing some awards. the text says: Real Estate Large division Winner - Bloomberg News; LA Wildfire Real Estate Aftershocks Staff Honorable Mention - Bloomberg News; Deception in Paradise Andrea Navarro, Tanaz Meghjani Medium division Winner - Houston Chronicle; Built to Flood: Who profits and who pays the price for building in Texas floodplains Yilun Cheng, Caroline Ghisolfi, Matt Zdun Honorable Mention - CNBC; How the Al data center boom is reshaping rural America Jordan Novet, Paige Totorelli, Pippa Stevens, MacKenzie Sigalos
screenshot of New York Times article. here is the text of the two paragraphs shown: An engineer at OpenAI processed 210 billion “tokens” — enough text to fill Wikipedia 33 times — through the company’s artificial intelligence models over the last week, the most of any employee. At Anthropic, a single user of the company’s A.I. coding system, Claude Code, racked up a bill of more than $150,000 in a month.
photo of reMarkable tablet with marker stylus attached on the right edge, sitting on a coffee table. a book is to the left of the tablet. A coaster is to the right of the tablet
screenshot of indictment. text is as follows: a. On or about January 14, 2025, LIAW sent Individual-I a link to a White House press release announcing a new export rule involving artificial intelligence-related products, which was scheduled to take effect on or about May 13, 2025, and would have impacted the defendants' ability to route servers through Company-I on their way to China. LIAW, referring to pending orders from Company-I to the U.S. Manufacturer for servers with Nvidia GPUs, wrote to Individual-I , "We need to speed these up before May 13!" Similarly, a few days later, on or about January 17, 2025, LIAW texted Individual-I , "We can ship all your 512 x B200 by Feb. Let us run fast before May 13!" Days later, CHANG texted Individual-2 a photograph of a particular type of pallet for the servers that can "ship to China, HK [i.e. , Hong Kong] or any countries without any problems."
screenshot of part of LinkedIn's patches on the web. red background. text says "Patches #1 See you tomorrow!" there's my profile pic, and it says "solved in 1:17 Quick Learner!" 31% of new players couldn't solve this puzzle." there are post, send and copy buttons at the bottom of the screenshot
screenshot of part of New York Times obituary of its former chief foreign correspondent, John Burns. at top is a subhead that says "Arrested in China." there are two paragraphs below the subhead, which read, "Assigned to China in the 1980s, some years after he had joined The Times from the Toronto Globe and Mail in 1975, Mr. Burns embarked on an unauthorized 1,000-mile motorcycle journey into the hinterland, where foreigners were not permitted to travel. He was arrested, charged with espionage — a charge that he ridiculed and which was later dropped — and deported. He was the head of The Times’s Baghdad bureau following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and his tenure there inspired a long article in Vanity Fair that spoke of personal rivalries, dysfunction and divisions. Friend and foe alike framed their views of him with equal passion." below those paragraphs is a photo of Burns, still with dark hair and beard, dark diagonally striped crew tie, light-colored button-down shirt with sleeves rolled up to elbows, dark belt, pleated khakis, walking beside a person who appears to be a law enforcement officer in front of brick wall. caption says: "Mr. Burns in Beijing in 1986. After taking an unauthorized 1,000-mile motorcycle trip through central China, he was arrested and charged with espionage — charges that were later dropped.Credit...Associated Press"
screenshot of MapQuest.com on desktop. shows satellite illustrated map of midtown Manhattan, a field for entering in a place and three ads. looks a little bit like Google Maps
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff talking with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin on the Salesforce earnings webcast
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff talking with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts CEO Geoff Ballotti on the Salesforce earnings webcast
screenshot of Salesforce earnings webcast. the webcast shows an illustration of Slack Mac app during a video call, with Marc Benioff and SharkNinja CEO Mark Barrocas talking
screenshot of earnings webcast with Marc at the head of the table. Chief operating and financial officer Robin Washington is immediately at his right. Executives Patrick Stokes, Miguel Milano and Mike Spencer are also seated at the table. Marc is talking in front of a microphone and a glass of water. there is a bookshelf with books and pictures behind him
screenshot shows three paragraphs, and the following two sentences are highlighted: the company has partnered with credible news sources including The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, as well as “more than 200 local newspapers” in the U.S. to inform Alexa+’s responses. “We have comprehensive guardrails built throughout the Alexa+ experience to help prevent potentially harmful or inaccurate content, and we continually test our models and leverage customer feedback to improve the experience,” she said. The full passage is as follows: OpenAI, Google, and Amazon do not disclose to their customers the full range of data and processes used to curate and incorporate data into their bots’ outputs or how guardrails are employed to prevent misuse, making it hard to explain the differences in the audit results. As noted above, Alexa+, Amazon’s voice-enabled LLM, did not repeat any falsehoods, obtaining a 0 percent fail rate to all three prompt types. Asked about what guardrails Amazon has put in place to explain Alexa+’s performance, Leila Rouhi, the company’s Vice President, Trust, Privacy & Accessibility for Devices and Services, told NewsGuard in a February 2026 email that the company has partnered with credible news sources including The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, as well as “more than 200 local newspapers” in the U.S. to inform Alexa+’s responses. “We have comprehensive guardrails built throughout the Alexa+ experience to help prevent potentially harmful or inaccurate content, and we continually test our models and leverage customer feedback to improve the experience,” she said. OpenAI declined to comment about NewsGuard’s findings, and Google did not respond to two emailed requests for comment.
Bloomberg chart titled AI Disruption Mentions Surge to Record. quarterly, goes back to 2020. shows rise in 4Q 2022, generally moving higher, hits top level in 4Q 2025