July could be the hottest month in 120,000 years

Feeling the heat yet? July 2023 is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded on earth…and possibly the hottest in 120,000 years. That’s according to data collected by the World Meteorological Organization, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and Leipzig University. Their work shows that, based on the first three weeks of the month, July is set to be 0.2 degree Celsius (about 0.4 degree Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous warmest July in 2019. And July is typically the warmest month of the year. If you are in Greece or Arizona or Mexico, this may come as no surprise. But it moves the climate change debate from predictions to lived experience.

Separately, IT professionals are clearly feeling the first great impacts of generative A.I. Another new survey out today, which was conducted for Freshworks and covered 2,000 IT professionals around the world, found that 71% of them are already using A.I. to support their workload, and 46% are using generative A.I. tools like ChatGPT. And while they have concerns about A.I.’s tendency to produce false information (41%), security and privacy issues (38%), and the potential it may lead to layoffs (28%), they also see significant benefits, including freeing up time formerly spent on repetitive tasks (49%), and freeing up employees to do more complex work (45%).

You can read the full study here. And since it is Friday, some feedback. J.A. took me to task for this sentence yesterday—“Twenty years ago, most CEOs found it fairly easy to lay low and avoid controversy.”—writing that I should have used “lie low” not “lay low.” Anyone else care to weigh in?

Other news below. 

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

TOP NEWS

Recovery friendly

Small businesses across the U.S. are embracing policies that offer employment and workplace support to the millions of Americans recovering from substance abuse. The “recovery-friendly workplace” movement is also a bet that these policies will make businesses more attractive in a tight labor market. Workers in recovery tell Fortune’s Erika Fry that working in a supportive business boosted their self-confidence and professional ambition. Fortune

Iger’s PR blunder

Disney CEO Bob Iger made a serious communications misstep when he called demands from striking actors and writers “not realistic” earlier this month, PR experts tell Fortune. “That’s not what people want to hear” after COVID and inflation-related challenges, one marketing professor said. Studio heads, learning from Iger’s mistake, are now taking a more cautious approach when talking about the strike. Fortune 

Where’s my Cybertruck?

Over 1.5 million customers are still waiting for news on when they might get their hands on Tesla’s Cybertruck, announced over three years ago. The all-electric truck has been beset with supply chain snarls, higher-than-expected costs, and the wild behavior of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Yet Tesla needs the new vehicle to reinvigorate its product line, which hasn’t seen a new model since 2020’s Model Y. Fortune

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

Inside Illumina’s $8 billion deal that spurred a proxy fight with Carl Icahn and the ouster of 2 prominent Black Silicon Valley executives by Lila MacLellan

Remote workers have a message for spying bosses: That won’t work, and neither will we by Jane Thier

Oil companies that made a killing last year after energy prices surged are now facing a reckoning. Some have taken more than a 50% hit by Prarthana Prakash

Microsoft is in serious EU antitrust trouble for the first time in a decade and a half—and this time it’s because of its Slack rival by David Meyer

Larry Summers slams Joe Biden’s economic strategy ‘Bidenomics’ as ‘increasingly dangerous’ by Chloe Taylor

Microsoft’s CFO Amy Hood lays out an A.I. investment roadmap by Sheryl Estrada

This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.