CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 19, 2023 | $3.50
Exploring the promise and peril of ChatGPT Local companies from United Airlines to Morningstar tread carefully as they look for ways to harness the powerful new form of artificial intelligence
F A S T
BY JOHN PLETZ
CHICAGO’S FASTEST - GROWING COMPANIES
When ChatGPT was released, the first thing JPMorgan Chase did was block employees from using it internally. Then the company stepped up its experimentation with the powerful new artificial intelligence underlying the chatbot app. “We wanted to make sure we were protecting ourselves and our (intellectual property), and helping our employees understand that we were going to take a more disciplined approach to how we evaluate it,” says Lori Beer, chief information officer for the giant bank, which has more than 2,000
tech workers in Chicago. “We are testing not only GPT but other large-language models.” JPMorgan’s approach reflects the mix of wariness and excitement ChatGPT has stirred up among local companies as they consider possible uses of a new technology that burst on the scene in a tsunami of hype. In recent months, Chicago-area businesses from United Airlines to Morningstar have started experimenting cautiously with ChatGPT and its artificial-intelligence siblings. “Given the hype cycle around ChatGPT, there were a lot of See ChatGPT on Page 27
Remote work and crime take toll on home prices
50
Declines are sweeping across the city, while the suburbs are seeing increases I BY DENNIS RODKIN
PAGE 13
HOME PRICES IN CHICAGO, but not in the suburbs, have been declining all year, a warning sign that work from home and a seemingly intractable crime problem are hurting the city’s real estate market. In each of the six months between November 2022 and April 2023, the median price of homes sold in the city was down from the same time a year earlier, according to the most recent data from Illinois Realtors. It’s the longest stretch of declines since a 13-month period that ended in June 2011, when housing markets everywhere were struggling to rise out of the crash of 2007-2008. Work from home and crime
are impacting many big cities’ housing markets, says Jim Russell, a Virginia-based geographer who tracks real estate, but crime may be dealing a heavier blow in Chicago than elsewhere. This is not to say that crime is the only thing causing home prices to drop in the city, only that its role has become more visible. “The narrative about Chicago’s underlying violence used to be that it was more prevalent in certain sections of the city,” says Sara Ware, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and managing broker at Hyde See HOME PRICES on Page 6
VOL. 46, NO. 25 l COPYRIGHT 2023 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
P001_CCB_20230619.indd 1
FINANCE
BOOTH INSIGHTS
Debt lands the local maker of Instant Pot and CorningWare in bankruptcy. PAGE 4
Improve your pitch to hook the audience and close the deal. PAGE 9
6/16/23 2:13 PM
W C M H