Lifeboat Foundation

Tech isn’t as collegial.

Tech isn’t as collegial as it used to be. Rocket ships are being unveiled as sputtering messes, mission-driven startups don’t feel so mission oriented when responding to investor pressure, and widespread layoffs offer a loud reminder that jobs are breakable contracts not sacrosanct vows.

Over the past few months, thousands of employees from Meta, Twitter, Stripe, Amazon, DoorDash and countless other companies that don’t have the privilege of being household names are back on the job market. A job market that includes hiring freezes, salary cuts and a general malaise that industry experts warn won’t be over this year.

Continue reading “Burned: ‘Not everybody is walking away with a year’s worth of runway in their pocket’” »

Apple Inc. recently added audiobook narration to the growing list of occupations where algorithms are poised to replace humans alongside graphic designers, college essayists and limerick writers. Luckily, the fine art of newslettering remains (ahem) far beyond the capabilities of even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence software. Still, hope is at hand for those not fortunate enough to toil in the newsletter mines but still seeking gainful employment that won’t disappear as robots take control.

To remain employed in an AI-dominated workplace, train as an artisan.

Amazon is laying off 18,000 employees, the tech giant said Wednesday, representing the single largest number of jobs cut at a technology company since the industry began aggressively downsizing last year.

In a blog post, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote that the staff reductions were set off by the uncertain economy and the company’s rapid hiring over the last several years.

The cuts will primarily hit the company’s corporate workforce and will not affect hourly warehouse workers. In November, Amazon had reportedly been planning to lay off around 10,000 employees but on Wednesday, Jassy pegged the number of jobs to be shed by the company to be higher than that, as he put it, “just over 18,000.”

I believe that full automation of jobs will create an utopia so we can all have universal basic income giving a reprieve for all humans from hard labor or hard mental labor as well kinda like the Jetsons where very few will need to work. Essentially allowing us to dream just like Ray Kurzweil has proposed.

AI taking over jobs may happen in some industries more than others. Learn how AI and robots will impact the future of work.

Many users on Twitter claim that OpenAI’s ChatGPT write and review codes within seconds. The company notes that ChatGPT is designed to offer a simpler, jargon-free reply to users.

The company was founded under the name Future Meat Technologies in 2018, but rebranded to Believer Meats last month. In 2021 they opened a facility to produce lab-grown meat at scale in Israel, and were aiming to secure FDA approval and start offering their products in US restaurants by the end of this year. That doesn’t seem to have happened, as the first FDA approval went to competitor Upside Foods.

But true to its name, Believer Meats hasn’t been deterred by this slower-than-anticipated series of events. Last week the company started construction of a 200,000-square-foot factory in Wilson, North Carolina, about 45 miles due east of Raleigh. In a press release the company stated, somewhat perplexingly, that it chose this location partly because of its “success in integrating technology-driven solutions to improve the lives of residents.”

With a production capacity of 10,000 metric tons, Believer says the facility will be the biggest of its type in the world. They’re putting $123 million into the plant, and say it will create more than 100 new jobs over the next three years. This huge investment seems like a bit of a leap of faith considering the company doesn’t have regulatory approval to produce and sell cultivated meat anywhere, including in the US; but co-founder Yaakov Nahmias says they’ve been working with the FDA towards gaining approval for years.

Commentary: Large language models can surprise and delight, but they’re not perfect.

If AI is what intrigues you, you need to check out these high-paying AI jobs to apply for your next role.

Artificial Intelligence, AI is undoubtedly the most in-demand and sought-after technology. The increasing popularity of AI has definitely turned the world upside down and for the better. The high paying AI jobs are definitely a reason that people are so fascinated by them. The article lists top 10 highly paying AI jobs to apply for in December 2022. These are the exact AI jobs to apply for a whooping salary.

Data Scientist

A new law in NYC will come into effect on April 15, 2023, requiring companies using automated employment decision tools to pass an audit for bias. AI ethicist Merve Hickok explains everything about it here.