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Tonight: If AI is the future, we need some ground rules ASAP, according to the people most interested in making AI the future. Plus: Liz Holmes reports to prison, and a debt ceiling deal works its way through Congress. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

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Last updated May 30 at 7:43 PM ET

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Artificial Intelligence. To consider the hype over the technology's biggest proponents and detractors, you might come away with two diabolically different opinions:

AI is either the revolutionary technology that will transform the planet into a robotically maintained idyll in which all humans will flourish, having been freed from the monotonous, soulless work that has defined post-industrial human existence.
Or it is the manifestation of man's tragic destiny: That he will innovate himself straight out of existence.

Take away the hype, and the reality most likely lies somewhere in the middle. But even the people who believe in the optimistic vision of AI are warning lawmakers not to discount the possibility of the dystopian vision.

See here: On Tuesday, dozens of AI industry leaders and academics published a one-sentence warning about the risk of global annihilation from misused AI:

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."

That's it. That's the whole statement. But perhaps the most important part is the list of signatories, which included Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (maker of the popular bot ChatGPT); Geoffrey Hinton, a renowned researcher known as the "godfather" of AI; researchers from Google; Microsoft's chief technology officer; the author and climate advocate Bill McKibben, and many others.

This is coming from the folks whose jobs are, like, building and distributing the tools, like ChatGPT, that are built on AI.

To be sure, we're not in scary robot war territory yet. The bots most consumers can use now are impressive at stringing words together to make a believable-sounding replica of human speech. But they are essentially just parroting — not thinking for themselves. Which is why the results are sometimes hilariously, or scarily, inaccurate. (See also: This lawyer who was recently caught using ChatGPT to write a brief that the judge said included "judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.")

But the potential is there, and the money is pouring in from investors. That's why experts want regulations in place sooner before the entire tech world gets carried away.

Oh, speaking of money: Nvidia, which manufactures the computer chips behind generative AI like ChatGPT, has been riding the AI wave straight to the bank. On Tuesday, Nvidia's stock surged, propelling the company's market cap to $1 trillion. That puts Nvidia in an elite Wall Street club, as it is only the ninth company ever to achieve a trillion-dollar-plus valuation, and only five other companies — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Saudi Aramco — currently hold that distinction.

Bottom line: Like any new tech, AI has its hype beasts and its skeptics. But unlike some more recent buzzy developments (cryptocurrencies, the metaverse, etc), AI is demonstrating, rather virally, the kind of real-world applications that make it appealing. It doesn't have to convince anyone of its usefulness. That's driving faster adoption and inviting hot money from investors who don't want to miss out on wherever this AI train is going. Consider that ChatGPT was only released publicly less than six months ago. Back then, you could pick up Nvidia stock for 160 bucks a share. Today, it's $400.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

Cash levels at the US Treasury are tumbling toward a dangerously low level.

As of the close of business on May 25, Treasury had $38.8 billion in cash, down from more than $200 billion earlier this month and nearing the bare minimum level of $30 billion.

For context: On this planet, there are 31 people whose individual net worths are higher than the amount of cash left in the government's piggy bank, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Some of the world's wealthiest, of course, more than eclipse the Treasury. Fashion mogul Bernard Arnault has a net worth estimated at $193 billion. That's about five times the US Treasury's balance.

🔐 LOCKED UP

Elizabeth Holmes, the Stanford dropout who captivated Silicon Valley for years before her blood-testing startup was revealed to be a fraud, reported to federal prison on Tuesday to begin an 11-year sentence.

Holmes, who is 39 and a mother of two, will spend the next several years at a minimum-security facility called Federal Prison Camp Bryan in southern Texas, about 100 miles from Houston, my colleague Catherine Thorbecke reports.

"Minimum security" is one of those descriptions that makes folks think of country-club-like settings where the inmates get to leisurely pass the time. Federal prison camps are sometimes nicknamed "Camp Fed" because they're less restrictive than other institutions.

But Holmes' life is about to look far different from the life she led as a billionaire CEO before her lies began publicly unraveling in 2015.

Inside FPC Bryan, Holmes will reside with 600 other incarcerated women, working jobs that pay as little as $0.12 an hour.

"I think people who talk about 'Camp Fed' have never actually been inside a federal correctional institution," said Mark MacDougall, a longtime white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. "It's not a place where people would want to spend time if they could be somewhere else."

Housing at FPC Bryan typically consists of dormitory-style arrangements featuring a four-bunk cubicle and communal bath facilities.

"There's no privacy," MacDougall said.

Holmes, like all inmates at Bryan, will have to wear a uniform of khaki pants and a khaki shirt.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which interviewed former inmates of FPC Bryan, new inmates typically do a 90-day stint in the kitchen, one of the lowest-paying and most grueling of all the prison's jobs.

As MacDougall put it, "Anybody that suggests that she's going to be in a pleasant environment or have an easy time of it is kidding themselves."

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

💰 The debt ceiling latest:

President Biden and House Republicans reached an agreement over the weekend to address the debt limit and cap spending. But the drama isn't over.
Lawmakers are now racing to pass the bill through both chambers and avert a catastrophic default ahead of the expected June 5 deadline. A House vote expected Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US oil prices dropped below $70 a barrel Tuesday on concerns about whether the deal will make it through Congress, and on reports of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia ahead of a key OPEC+ meeting.

💸 Britain is getting so desperate to tame inflation it's considering food price caps.

🏡 State Farm is stopping new home insurance sales in California, citing wildfire risks and skyrocketing construction costs.

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