Political wrangling prevented California's incentive plan from being ratified by the deadline, prompting Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to instead shore up support ahead of next year's budget negotiations. Nunez, who authored AB 777, drafted a letter promising that he and other legislative leaders remain "committed to including industry tax incentives in the budget we pass next year." The letter, addressed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was signed by Nunez, D-Los Angeles, Republican Assembly leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine. "As you know, the motion picture and television production industry is a major contributor to our economy," Nunez wrote. "However, other states and nations are offering significant tax incentives to lure this important homespun industry away from California. That is why the tax incentives are essential to keeping motion picture and television production within California."
Commercial interest in Generative AI (GenAI) tools has reached a fever pitch, and the latest forecast from Gartner amplifies this emerging trend. Gartner predicts $644 billion in worldwide spending on GenAI in 2025, marking a dramatic 76.4 percent increase from the previous year. This surge underscores the impact GenAI will have across industries. It also requires a closer examination of the underlying dynamics of future potential. Generative AI Market Development This growth is fueled by the GenAI foundational model providers who invest billions into enhancing the size, performance, and reliability of their models. Hardware also accounts for a significant portion of this spending, with ~80 percent allocated to servers, smartphones, and PCs equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities. This highlights the critical need for computational power to support the demanding workloads of GenAI. However, Gartner also injects a dose of reality into the GenAI hype cycle. There's a dec...