If last year’s AI summit was all about businesses showing off the fruit of a year of generative experimentation, attendees at this year’s iteration of the Manhattan conference seemed more concerned with how to turn those shiny prototypes into real moneymakers.

Sessions at Informa’s gathering were preoccupied with “real-world scaling,” moving “beyond the pilot,” and “AI on a budget.” Multiple moderators tried to gauge attendees’ progress beyond experimentation with informal shows of hands.

“We wanted to talk today about how we are starting to overcome this ‘failure to launch’ challenge,” Traci Gusher, Americas AI and data leader at EY, said at the start of one representative session.

Yet despite potential roadblocks, interest in the ninth annual AI and business-themed event remained high; organizers reported their biggest year yet, with more than 5,000 registered attendees. New York Governor Kathy Hochul even stopped by to address the crowd on the second day in a surprise appearance.

The conversations at the summit reflected the larger scaling challenges that organizations are facing two years after ChatGPT’s release kicked off a massive hype wave in the business world. A Gartner study earlier this year predicted that 30% of companies’ proof-of-concept AI projects will be abandoned by 2025. The research firm has classified the tech as entering what it calls the “trough of disillusionment” in its famous hype cycle trajectory.

Jim Rowan, principal and head of AI at Deloitte, said on stage that around two-thirds of businesses have moved 30% or fewer generative AI experiments into full production, per the consultancy’s most recent survey data.

“That’s really created a challenge and a tension, and that tension is really about ROI,” Rowan said. “Why am I investing so much money in this technology if I can’t see the unlockable value creation?”
Keep reading here.—PK

In a surprise move, General Motors announced this week that it’s pulling the plug on its robotaxi business––making it the latest company to shift its focus from fully autonomous vehicles amid technological challenges and market pressures.

In a news release, the Detroit automaker said it would stop funding Cruise, the self-driving vehicle company it acquired in 2016 and into which it’s poured $10 billion. The company plans to combine the Cruise and GM autonomous driving teams, and in the coming months acquire the remaining shares of Cruise from other shareholders in order to wind down operations.

GM cited “the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.”

“I want to be clear that GM made this decision to refocus our strategy because we believe in the importance of driver assistance and autonomous driving technology in our vehicles,” CEO Mary Barra told Wall Street analysts. “This approach would allow us to leverage the strengths of GM and Cruise while simplifying and accelerating the path forward, providing customers meaningful benefits along the way.”

GM expects the move to save more than $1 billion a year.
Keep reading here.—JG

Automakers have been developing fuel-cell vehicles for decades, but there still aren’t many on the road today, in part because green hydrogen is expensive and a reliable refueling network has yet to materialize. But recent research shows that could soon change.

By 2030, green hydrogen prices could fall to $2.50 per kilogram—a significant reduction from the $6 to $7 per kilogram it costs now—according to a recent report from ABI Research.

The Economic Viability of Green Hydrogen for Industry and Enterprises report also predicted that by 2040, green hydrogen prices could be $1.80 per kilogram, which would make it cheaper than other “polluting alternatives,” like gray hydrogen, which are currently more cost effective.

Gray hydrogen is created using natural gas, like methane, and produces carbon. Green hydrogen is created using renewable energy, and thus doesn’t produce any non-sustainable byproduct—but it’s more costly to produce.

ABI Research’s predictions are based on its beliefs that electrolyzers, which are used to create hydrogen, will become more efficient and cheaper themselves.

And there’s a lot riding on lower green hydrogen costs: ABI Research said that industries like steel and shipping switching to green hydrogen would be “fundamental to meeting sustainability commitments and net zero targets at the company, national, and regional levels.”
Keep reading here.—TC

Usually, we write about the business of tech. Here, we highlight the *tech* of tech.

Well, that was inevitable: Wired succinctly sums up the news in the headline: You can buy a car on Amazon now. (Well, a Hyundai and only a Hyundai for the moment.)

But do you want to? While, as Wired reports, it’s possible to pick out your trim level and other features before checking out, you’ll still have to pick up the car at a nearby Hyundai dealer.

We, for one, like to haggle to get the dealer to throw in weatherproof floor mats, so we’ll be sticking to IRL car purchases for the time being.

Chi-chi charging: The Verge reviews Rivian’s new Joshua Tree EV charging station, a follow-up to its first outpost in Yosemite, which Tech Brew’s own Jordyn Grzelewski wrote about back in July. And, listen, we’re gonna be honest, it seems great! No more settling for sad egg-and-cheese sandwiches and a bag of peanut M&Ms during refueling stops on road trips. This place has everything, as The Verge notes: “You can buy roasted garlic Spanish white anchovies, lemon caper mackerel, organic crackers, and pesto. There’s everything you need for a bougie charcuterie board. Even the sodas are organic.”

If that’s not a reason to eschew our ICE vehicles, we don’t know what is.