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Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT at the end of a whirlwind week of diplomacy in the Middle East. More on Trump’s Gulf trip below and here’s what else is on today’s agenda:
AI groups focus on memory
New revelations about Joe Biden’s cognitive state
And should you buy multiple versions of the same garment?
We start today with a look at how artificial intelligence companies are grappling with the challenge of how to retain memories as they battle to make the technology more compelling and personalised.
Why are groups including OpenAI, Google, Meta and Microsoft stepping up their focus on memory? The area is viewed as an important way for top AI groups to attract customers in a competitive market for chatbots and agents and make their products more “sticky”. It is also a means to generate revenues from the cutting-edge technology. “If you have an agent that really knows you, because it has kept this memory of conversations, it makes the whole service more sticky, so that once you’ve signed on to using [one product] you will never go to another one,” Pattie Maes, a professor at MIT’s media lab and specialist in human interaction with AI, told the FT’s Cristina Criddle.
How are AI groups building these memories? AI groups, such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have made huge strides by expanding context windows, which determine how much of a conversation a chatbot can remember at once, and using techniques such as retrieval-augmented generation, which identifies relevant context from external data. AI groups have also boosted the long-term memory of their models by storing user profiles and preferences to provide more useful and personalised responses.
What are some examples of how these advances are being used? OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s chatbot in WhatsApp and Messenger can already reference past conversations, instead of just the current session. In March, Google expanded Gemini’s memory to a user’s search history — as long as the person gives permission — compared with previously being limited to conversations with the chatbot, and plans to expand this to other Google apps in the future. For businesses, Microsoft has used organisational data to inform memory, such as emails, calendars and intranet files. Read more about the advances being made by AI groups around memory and some of the issues raised by critics.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:
Economic data: The Commerce Department’s Census Bureau is set to report data on housing starts and permits. Separately, the Department of Labor releases import and export prices for April. Brazil’s statistics agency updates the country’s inflation index.
Federal Reserve: It’s day two of the Thomas Laubach Research Conference, hosted by the US central bank and related to monetary policy and the economy. Panellists include former Fed chair Ben Bernanke.
Trump trip: The president is in the United Arab Emirates on the final leg of his visit to the oil-rich region. The UAE has ambitions to become an AI hub and has agreed to build the largest group of data centres outside the US.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. Japan has signalled it is prepared to hold out for a better trade deal with the US, pushing for full removal of Donald Trump’s 25 per cent duty on imports of Japanese cars and better treatment of farmers rather than risk a domestic political backlash. Leo Lewis and Harry Dempsey in Tokyo have more on this story.
2. Nvidia is seeking to build a research and development centre in Shanghai that would help the world’s leading maker of artificial intelligence processors stay competitive in China, where its sales have slumped due to tightening US export controls. Read details of Nvidia’s plans.
3. Democratic operatives have urged Joe Biden to avoid public appearances as dramatic revelations about his cognitive state during the 2024 presidential race hit the party’s efforts to oppose Donald Trump. A much-anticipated book from journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson is due out next week and includes new examples of Biden’s lapses.
4. Federal Reserve policymakers’ aims to curb inflation while maximising employment are “pulling them in diametrically different directions”, the head of Fidelity’s $2.3tn fixed income business has told the FT. The comments come as Trump’s tariffs threaten to increase inflation and hit the jobs market. Read the full interview with Robin Foley.
5. US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was yesterday targeted by hackers who stole customer data and demanded $20mn to prevent its public disclosure. The group, which is set to become the first crypto exchange to join the S&P 500 on May 19, said the cyber demands were made on Sunday. Coinbase shares dropped more than 7 per cent on the news.
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News in depth
The warm embrace this week between a beaming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and a gushing Donald Trump in a Riyadh ballroom epitomised the tenor of the president’s trip to the oil-rich Gulf. It was a four-day jamboree of opulent ceremonies, unabashed flattery and, above all, a glut of petrodollar-fuelled deals the transactional president so cherishes. FT reporters separate the fact from the fiction.
We’re also reading . . .
US economy: A recession doesn’t seem so likely any more, writes Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Skin in the game: Trump’s tariff-induced market sell off made me a hundred grand, writes Stuart Kirk.
Oil sanctions: History shows they must either be used swiftly and decisively, together with allies, or not at all, writes Gillian Tett.
Will Merz ban the AfD?: Germany’s new chancellor is weighing up whether to ban the party that came second in February’s parliamentary elections.
Chart of the day
Ukraine’s efforts to compete with Russia’s military superiority has left it exposed to the vagaries of the international arms market. An FT investigation, based on leaked Ukrainian state documents, court filings and dozens of interviews with procurement officials, weapons dealers and manufacturers, and detectives, has uncovered how hundreds of millions of dollars Kyiv paid to foreign arms intermediaries to secure vital military equipment was wasted over the past three years of war.
Take a break from the news
Buying multiples of garments is one of those lesser-discussed shopping strategies that’s surprisingly widespread, writes Emily Cronin. It’s also divisive, she says, as she explores the pros and cons of buying garments in multiples.
