Good morning. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other technology heavyweights debated the possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with more than 60 U.S. Senators who are contemplating legislation to regulate the technology.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of X (formerly Twitter), warned about what he views as AI’s potential to threaten humanity, according to a participant. Microsoft co-founder Gates said the technology could help address world hunger, said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who convened the session.

Other speakers included Facebook founder Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and IBM, along with union leaders.

• Consensus to regulate AI: Schumer at one point asked the guests if they agreed that the government needed to play a role in regulating artificial intelligence. Everyone present raised their hands, Schumer said during a break in the day-long session.
   
• Open source? One debate centered on the practice of making certain AI programs “open source,” or available for the public to download and modify. Some in the room raised concerns about the practice, which has the potential to put powerful AI systems in the hands of bad actors, according to one participant. But Zuckerberg, whose company Meta Platforms has released powerful open-source models, defended the practice. He told Senators in his opening statement that open source “democratizes access to these tools, and that helps level the playing field and foster innovation for people and businesses,” according to excerpts released by the company.

Also: White House Calls for Stronger Open-Source Security

With CEO out, BP faces choice of whether to abandon push to go green

The sudden end to BP Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney’s 32-year career at the British energy giant could free the company to do more of what investors have wanted amid soaring energy prices—pump still more oil and gas.

Putting more priority on fossil fuels would entail playing down the lower-carbon strategy Looney championed more than his predecessors and rivals alike.

Analysts and advisers see an opening for BP to continue investing selectively in wind and solar power, including in Europe to help power the company’s refineries there. But they say BP also could grab the chance to shift further back to its traditional core focus of extracting and trading oil and gas, which currently produces overall higher returns than renewable projects.

• The European Union is launching an antisubsidy investigation into China’s electric-vehicle makers, opening a new front in the battle for leadership of the global clean-technology industry.
   
• Citigroup Chief Executive Jane Fraser is shaking up the bank’s upper management levels, shedding layers and overlapping roles in her latest bid to simplify the sprawling organization.
   
• FTX received court approval to sell over $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency that has been frozen since the exchange’s collapse, a move that would help repay its customers and reduce its exposure to sudden changes in crypto prices.
   
• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy laid out a map for passing legislation to keep the government funded past Oct. 1, but immediately ran into new roadblocks from spending hawks and fresh grumbling that he should be ousted from his post.

Costlier fuel and labor cut into corporate profit

Energy and labor costs are cutting further into some corporate profits, in the latest sign that inflationary forces continue to course through industries, pressure executives and worry Wall Street.

American Airlines on Wednesday cut its quarterly profit forecast, citing surging jet fuel costs and a new pilot contract ratified in August. Package delivery giant United Parcel Service said this week it expects to book about $500 million more in contract-related costs than it expected by year-end, hitting its profit margins. In Detroit, workers are threatening a strike this week against the big three U.S. automakers.

• Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un flaunted their burgeoning friendship at a summit, displaying a partnership between the leaders that unnerves the West over concerns that North Korea will provide munitions to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
   
• After Morocco earthquake, wiped-out villages lose hope of rebuilding. 
   
• Authorities and relatives of thousands of residents of eastern Libya who were killed in a lethal storm are burying many of the dead in collective graves, as officials struggle to identify the bodies piling up on the street and locate thousands of missing people.

At O’Melveny, Brooks will focus on serving financial-services and financial-technology clients, the law firm said Wednesday. Brooks, who led the banking regulator from May 2020 to January 2021, worked as the chief legal officer for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase before joining the OCC and served as the chief executive of crypto exchange Binance.US for three months in 2021. He also was CEO at blockchain technology firm Bitfury. 

Regions Bank names new compliance chief. Regions Bank has appointed Anna Brackin as chief compliance officer, following the retirement of Doug Jackson from the post. Brackin will report to Matt Lusco, the bank’s chief risk officer.

Brackin, who joined Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions in 2020, previously held roles in risk management, operations and wholesale banking at SunTrust Bank, now known as Truist Financial.

• Caesars Entertainment paid a ransom to hackers following a cyberattack late this summer, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• The cybersecurity incident that forced MGM Resorts International to shut down some of its computer systems was still creating headaches for tourists on the Las Vegas Strip.
   
• Starbucks said former Chief Executive Howard Schultz would step down from the coffee chain’s board of directors, effective Wednesday, fully exiting the company’s leadership after he returned last year to help it navigate labor and operational challenges.
   
• The Detroit auto show has suffered setbacks in recent years, from pandemic disruptions to the defection of car brands. As the annual event kicked off Wednesday, it faced a new distraction: a looming strike deadline commanding the Motor City’s attention.
   
• The artists who make Captain Marvel fly and Spider-Man scale walls are unionizing.
   
• The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich called for his immediate release from Russia, where he has been imprisoned since March.

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