There are times in life when you feel like, “Oh, this is one of those moments that we'll look back on later as a defining [1] moment in history.” Only time will tell if March 2023 will be one of those times, but the topics dominating the headlines this month show what volatile [2] times we live in. 

A financial crisis starting in the US?

At the beginning of March, the US Federal Reserve said that economic data, including US jobs data, was strong and that it has an intention to aggressively raise interest rates to fight inflation. But, by the end of the month, the global economy suffered from two major bank collapses, US-based Silicon Valley Bank and Switzerland’s Credit Suisse, sending shockwaves through the markets. Experts are divided on whether these events were the beginning or end of the financial crisis, or even a crisis at all. What is clear is that we will be in for volatile markets in the foreseeable [3] future.  

The rise of a truly human-like machine?

ChatGPT, launched at the end of 2022, made a lot of noise with its comprehensive, human-like responses to simple and complex questions and commands. The debate rages on about how the machine will benefit humanity and, conversely, what jobs it will replace. With ChatGPT having only learned information up to 2021 and interacting only with text, there were claims that it's still too naive to replace humans. 

However, OpenAI, which developed and operates ChatGPT, has responded to the skepticism with its next interaction, ChatGPT 4.0, in March of 2023. People will find shortcomings in this version eventually, but that's not the point—adaptive AI is finally here, and seems likely to stay. 

Has climate change crossed the threshold [4]? 

In March, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the Earth's surface temperature will rise 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times by 2040. 1.5 degrees is the target the international community agreed to avoid in the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement to curb global warming, but it already looks out of reach. The IPCC also claimed that without a global policy shift, worldwide temperatures could rise to 3.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, and emphasized that “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are needed to halt [5] global warming.” These developments have been made many times before, but this “final warning” feels different. 

These are just a few of what we observed in March. Will this moment in time look back on as a moment in history?