July 23, 2023 Hi, I’m Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. Welcome back to Insider Today’s Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories.    Here's what's on the agenda: There may only be one hope for people trying to buy a new home in today's broken housing market: a huge new-building boom. Larry Fink has been the face of BlackRock for 35 years — but criticism over ESG investing hangs over his legacy as the firm plans for his succession. Rural America is the new hotbed in the AI race as tech giants spend billions to turn farms into data centers. Leaked Google pay data shows how much thousands of employees reported making. But first: Did ChatGPT get dumber? Get the latest on that below.  — Matt Turner   If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

DISPATCH ChatGPT getting dumber? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Lots of ChatGPT users have been complaining that the powerful AI model has been getting “lazier” and “dumber.” When I put this to ChatGPT, it reminded me that as an AI language model, it doesn’t have feelings or consciousness. Only humans can get dumber.  The more technical question then is, is it getting less accurate? An executive at OpenAI initially said the users complaining about degraded performance were wrong.  Then research out of Stanford University and UC Berkeley found that the performance of ChatGPT’s 3.5 version and 4.0 version varied greatly, with the newer model underperforming on some tasks. For example, ChatGPT turned out “more formatting mistakes in code generation” last month than it did earlier in the year, according to the research.  This has important implications. The promise of machine learning is that, well, it learns. But as the research paper noted, it is now an “interesting question whether an LLM service like GPT4 is consistently getting 'better' over time.” What happens if AI models don’t automatically improve?

THIS WEEK'S TOP READS Hope for wannabe homeowners Arantza Pena Popo/Insider It’s hard to buy a house right now. Those who already own a home aren’t selling, for fear of replacing their current low mortgage rate with something much higher. Prices aren’t budging. And competition remains fierce. Wannabe homeowners might be best placed looking at a brand-spanking new build. Recent data shows a surge in construction, and many builders are dangling perks like discounts and lower rates.  Read the full story. Also read:

A new tiny-home community near Tampa where units under 400 square feet start at $95,000 is nearly sold out — take a look around Fink’s succession BlackRock; Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider It’s a strange time for BlackRock. Larry Fink has spent half his life running the firm, and the asset manager’s board has been busy sizing up possible replacements for him.  However, casting a shadow over Fink’s legacy and eventual departure is the backlash over BlackRock’s environmental, social, and governance investing. It’s already made the firm and Fink a favorite political target for Republicans — now the scrutiny is adding a new layer of complexity to BlackRock’s succession plans.  The challenges facing Fink’s replacement.

Rural America’s AI explosion Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images Data-center development is booming across rural America. The industry had long been clustered in a handful of well-established markets like Chicago and Silicon Valley — but now, as AI stokes demand for data centers, developers are expanding to unexpected places.  That’s because AI requires massive amounts of energy — and the industry’s core markets simply don’t have enough of it. Instead, developers are now building massive data centers in rural towns, where they can tap pockets of electricity on the grid.  More on Big Tech’s move to rural America. Also read: The cloud uses massive amounts of energy. Generative AI will be way worse. A Microsoft data center veteran warns big changes are coming.

Leaked Google salaries JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images We all know that Google pays well. But an internal spreadsheet gives us our best look yet at how much exactly the tech giant is paying staff. We’ve obtained the leaked data and built a table of searchable roles with information on salaries, equity, and bonuses.  The best-paid are software engineers, who could make over $1 million yearly in total compensation. Check out the salary database. Also read: Here's how much I made at Google, Meta, and LinkedIn — and why I ultimately left my $196,000 tech job

THIS WEEK'S QUOTE “By combining a Neuralink implant and a robotic arm or leg, we believe we can give amputees basically a cyborg body that is incredibly capable. The $6 million man in real life. But it won't cost $6 million — a $60,000 man.”  — Elon Musk speaking on Tesla’s latest earnings call, where he touched on everything from “Game of Thrones” and Nvidia to Warren Buffett and the economy.

ICYMI More of this week's top reads New research reveals that Silicon Valley uses predatory pricing to crush competitors and scam investors. ChatGPT is commandeering the tasks that young employees rely on to advance their careers. That's going to hurt Gen Z's career path. Student-loan borrowers might face even more hurdles in resuming payments if Republicans pass their new proposal to cut education funding. Elon Musk says he doesn't “know what the hell is going on” with the economy. Actors reveal how little money they make as the SAG-AFTRA strike rolls on. People are calling out house flippers who took a $260,000 New York home and are now selling it for $1.2 million. Photos show tourists pushing their bodies to extremes while visiting Death Valley, California, even as temperatures reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Downtown Washington, DC is facing a familiar crisis among US cities right now: remote work has made it a ghost town.