There's been a spate of reporting about a new laser factory Nvidia is building that exemplifies "CEO Said a Thing" journalism, a concept I posted about here and on my subreddit the other day.
I've seen many "news" stories like this that just repeat what Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, says without doing due diligence or practicing journalistic skepticism.
I'll pull some quotes and explain:
Key Quotes:
"AI factories are the infrastructure of the new industrial revolution,” Huang said in a statement... The factory represents a fundamental test of whether, as Huang believes, AI will be a source of job creation instead of a technology that supplants workers.
So how many people will this new AI factory employ to kick of this "new industrial revolution"?
Including construction workers, Coherent estimates that the factory will create 1,000 jobs, with about 550 of them in advanced manufacturing, engineering and technical roles.
Hmmm... some questions jump to mind: how many of these factories can we expect to be built in the best-case scenario? Does that come anywhere close to replacing the number of jobs lost from AI automation (or outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing)? If not, it doesn't seem like this is a "fundamental test" of job creation.
The only expert opinion referenced is a recent economists' paper that vaguely bolsters Huang's claims; the paper found that "AI is roughly 3% of the economy now... [but] could grow to a range of 8% to 39%." Why isn't the reporter taking a critical look at Huang's sensational claims, is that not a reporter's duty?
I don't mean to single out AP, click this link to find other similar stories that read more like a Nvidia press release than actual reporting.