Latest news with #MattWalker
RNZ News
07-08-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Workers moving towns in desperate quest for jobs
Photo: People are having to take jobs in different towns from where they live in order to find work as unemployment rises . The unemployment rate has risen to a near-five year high of 5.2 percent as businesses either sack staff or stop hiring, with 156,000 people out of work. Hawke's Bay woman Shannon Kendall had to take a job two hours away from where she lived to find employment. Kendall is a project manager in the construction industry. She said after being made redundant in 2024 she spent a year looking for work before finding a job in Palmerston North. "I was applying for jobs in Auckland, I was applying for jobs in Australia and I was ready to just do whatever I had to do and commute big time to have employment and to stay in my industry." Kendall said it had been a tough 12 months and she was thankful for the job. But despite finding a job in another town, Kendall is commuting rather than relocating, with a son still enrolled in school in Hawke's Bay. Rotorua-based writer-editor Matt Walker meanwhile lost his job in the public service cuts early last year. Walker found himself sending out more than 200 job applications over the next 15 months, with no success. "I kept applying for public service roles in Rotorua and got a short-term contract at one point but I continued to look for a permanent job," he said. Walker, who has 25 years of professional experience, said the job market had become fiercely competitive. In one application process, he was up against 220 other candidates. "It's tough out there with hundreds of people going for the same role," Walker said. Now, he finally has a job in the NGO sector, but it requires him to travel from Rotorua to Christchurch. Walker said his current workplace has been incredibly supportive, providing him with all the resources he needed to succeed. "I'm not looking for a job change now," he said. Christchurch man James Brown earlier told RNZ he had applied for more than 100 jobs without luck . The insurance adjustor moved to Brisbane after he was made redundant just over a year ago. He was still working there, but needed to return home to his partner and children. "I have an extensive CV, it shouldn't be this difficult to find a job," he said. The latest figures show Auckland's 6.1 percent unemployment rate for the June 2025 quarter is the worst of all regions. About 15,000 more Aucklanders are without a job than this time last year. Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) head of advocacy Alan McDonald said while the agriculture industry was bolstering employment elsewhere, Auckland had different economic drivers. Intern Kajal Nair contributed to this story. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Always Unwell? A Huge New Study Suggests It Could Be Your Sleep Schedule
If you're always a little under the weather or find that you are more susceptible to illness than your peers, it may actually be because of your sleeping habits. A new study published in Health Data Science, analysed sleep data from 88,461 adults in the UK Biobank and found significant associations between sleep traits and 172 diseases including liver cirrhosis and gangrene Eek. The good news is, if you prefer to sleep for longer periods of time, you're still safe as the researchers state: 'Contrary to common belief, sleeping more than 9 hours wasn't found to be harmful when measured objectively, exposing flaws in previous research.' The real secret to better health is you sleep 'Our findings underscore the overlooked importance of sleep regularity,' said Prof. Shengfeng Wang, senior author of the study. 'It's time we broaden our definition of good sleep beyond just duration.' While sleep quality and duration can play a part, irregular sleeping patterns were the biggest sleep factor to disease – accounting for a startling 23% of the diseases linked to sleep. Researchers from Vanderbilt University reported that participants in the most irregular quartile faced a 53 percent higher risk of dying over eight years, even after adjusting for age, BMI, and existing illness. Sleeping after 12:30 a.m. was linked to a 2.57-fold higher risk of liver cirrhosis and inconsistent sleep-wake cycles more than doubled the risk of gangrene. Neuroscientist Dr Matt Walker said on the Huberman Lab podcast: 'Regularity is probably best for the continuity of your sleep. 'When you give [your brain] regularity, sleep starts to become more stable, more stable means that it's less likely to be littered with awakenings, meaning that it's better quality of sleep.' How to improve your sleep regularity The sleep experts at The Sleep Foundation advise: 'Pick a bedtime and wake-up time that you can stick with and that offer ample time for the sleep you need. Follow this schedule every day, even on weekends. It may take time to adjust to this new sleep schedule, which is normal. ' If you would prefer to gradually adapt to a new schedule, you can make 15 to 30 minute adjustments over a series of days to get used to the changes. They also recommend that your sleeping pattern should: Stay consistent from day-to-day Allow for at least seven hours of sleep each night Align as closely with day and night as your lifestyle allows Related... I Thought We Needed To Sleep Apart – Then Came The Scandinavian Method I'm A Sleep Expert – This 1 Change In Teens Can Be A 'Big Shock' For Parents Neurologist Shares The 1 Sleep Change That Could Reduce Dementia Risk
Martechvibe
30-06-2025
- Business
- Martechvibe
Simon Data Launches Composable AI Agents for Marketers
Simon Data, the AI-first composable CDP built for modern marketing teams, has announced the launch of Composable AI Agents for marketers. Simon's Composable AI Agents, built natively on Snowflake Cortex AI and powered by Claude from Anthropic, introduce a new operating model that provides marketers with direct, governed access to explore, identify, and activate data for personalisation without requiring code or relying on data teams. Despite significant investments in analytics resources and marketing clouds with integrated data platforms, most marketers still lack visibility into what data is missing, let alone how to act on it. They lack the insight into subtle behavioural patterns, emotional cues in support conversations, and real-world contextual triggers. Simon's agents help by uncovering data that marketers already have but can't easily access, along with new contextual signals they couldn't reach before. These insights are then put to work instantly across campaigns. This streamlines marketing workflows, closes the gap between planning and doing, and makes it easier to deliver personalised, timely marketing at scale. ALSO READ: 'Marketers have been told for years that personalisation was solved, but the reality has been static segments, brittle workflows, and missed customer moments,' said Jason Davis, CEO and Co-Founder of Simon Data. 'Composable AI Agents shift that reality, giving marketers direct access to context, decisioning, and execution. It's a new foundation for modern marketing that is faster, more insightful, and finally in the marketer's control.' Composable AI Agents are modular, task-specific software components powered by AI. Each one performs a discrete function to automate complex marketing workflows: analysing sentiment, identifying high-intent behaviours, modelling micro-audiences, or triggering personalised campaigns based on real-time context. They can be reused, combined, and adapted to support different goals. This creates a dynamic, AI-powered marketing system that works like a virtual, always-on data and ops team, helping marketers move from insight to execution with minimal lift. Simon's agents run entirely inside the Snowflake environment. That means data, prompts, and activation all happen in place, under full enterprise governance, observability, and control. There's no data movement, no black-box logic, and no compromise on speed or scale. With Composable AI Agents, marketers gain hands-on control over signals and execution logic. Even small teams that once waited weeks for data pulls or SQL queries can now operate with the speed and precision of organisations with far more resources. ALSO READ: 'Past systems weren't built for real-time insight or activation, which made personalisation hard to scale,' said Matt Walker, CTO and Co-Founder at Simon Data. 'Simon has changed that by bringing reasoning, context, and execution directly into the data layer for marketing to use. It's a fundamental technical shift that enables a new operating model.' Simon's implementation demonstrates the benefits of using Snowflake AI Data Cloud architecture to compose a data and AI stack, paired with Anthropic's advanced AI models. Simon's agents align directly with a shared vision for secure, governed AI in the enterprise. 'Simon's implementation of Composable AI Agents is a strong example of what's possible when applications are built natively in the Snowflake AI Data Cloud,' said Jeff Hollan, Head of Cortex AI Agents & Apps, Snowflake. 'By combining real-time data access with the flexibility of Snowflake Cortex, Simon empowers marketers to discover and activate data, while giving data teams confidence that everything runs within their governance and observability frameworks.' Three Types of Composable AI Agents: Insights Agents analyse all customer interactions to find valuable campaign opportunities using Claude's advanced reasoning capabilities Data Agents use AI-generated 'Smart Fields' technology to transform contextual data into actionable customer attributes Automation Agents execute campaigns using this deep contextual understanding, automatically creating and optimising hundreds of adaptive micro-targeted campaigns. Once Simon's Composable AI Agents surface the right signals and create the audience logic, they automate the flow directly into customer engagement platforms, such as Braze, Attentive, Iterable, and others. The output is campaigns enhanced with intelligence far beyond traditional audience segmentation. Rather than pre-scheduled blasts or static journeys, Simon enables message delivery that aligns with the behaviours, sentiment, and context driving each customer's decision. These rapid, high-impact campaigns result in critical business outcomes like winbacks, upsells, cross-sells, and repeat purchases. ALSO READ: Simon Data, Snowflake Partner To Aid Marketers With Data Capabilities The Martechvibe team works with a staff of in-house writers and industry experts. View More
Business Wire
10-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Somnee Secures $10M to Revolutionize Sleep with New AI-Powered Neurotech Sleep Wearables
BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Somnee – the leader in sleep technology delivering pioneering AI-powered neurotech and software – today announced it has raised $10 million in a seed extension round. Somnee was launched in 2022 by renowned sleep expert, Dr. Matt Walker, PhD, and an esteemed group of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures, LEAD VC (founded by the Adidas family), the NBA's Orlando Magic ownership group (DeVos family), Seaside Ventures, Nelstone Ventures, and Metalab, among others. Unlocking health and wellness through better sleep Sleep is one of the most powerful levers for health, longevity, and performance. Despite spending one-third of our lives asleep, nearly one in three adults suffer from poor sleep, ranging from insufficient deep sleep to insomnia. Based on decades of sleep research and neuroscience, Somnee has developed an AI-powered headband that helps people fall asleep faster and maintain higher quality sleep for longer. Somnee uses proprietary electroencephalogram (EEG+) and AI technology to map each user's brain activity and deliver gentle, personalized stimulation that guides the brain into its natural sleep state. In a published sleep study, Somnee helped users fall asleep twice as fast, stay asleep over 30 minutes longer, and reduce tossing and turning by a third. It outperforms melatonin by four times, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-i) by two times, and Ambien by one-and-a-half times. Its therapeutic modality is backed by clinical studies and covered by 24 patents. Introducing second-generation headband and AI operating system to scale company The new funds will support Somnee as it prepares to launch the second-generation of its award-winning smart sleep headband, featuring its proprietary SmartSleep AI operating system, which enables personalized brain mapping, real-time monitoring, and AI-powered interventions throughout the sleep cycle. The second-generation product is currently in a beta pilot with select NBA teams and their performance training staff. The company is scaling to address the $91.4 billion sleep aid market and advance its mission to improve sleep through personalized neuroscience. 'Enhanced sleep can radically improve happiness, energy, and purpose. As such, Somnee isn't just a health product: it's a tool for better leadership, deeper compassion, and smarter decisions,' said Marc Benioff, founder of TIME Ventures and Chair, Founder & CEO of Salesforce. 'It's been a critical element of my sleep hygiene since they launched, and I was a customer long before Tim reached out to invest in their pioneering tech.' The funding follows a milestone year for the company, including its selection for the NBA's 2025 Launchpad program, which supports the development of technologies that advance player health and performance, and winning best sleep technology awards and recognition from GQ Fitness Awards, Men's Journal, the Digital Health Hub Foundation Awards, and Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech. 'Sleep is the cheapest, most underused longevity drug we have. Few factors impact health more critically. Whereas others attempt to track sleep, Somnee's uniquely non-invasive and drug-free approach tunes it every night with a headband as effortlessly as brushing your teeth. That's why we backed them from day zero,' said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. Since joining 18 months ago, CEO Tim Rosa has led efforts to relocate manufacturing out of China and expand teams in Berkeley and India, enhance the company's next-generation hardware and proprietary SmartSleep AI operating system, and forged partnerships with Equinox Hotels and the NBA. Somnee is currently exploring additional partnerships with professional sports organizations, employers, and healthcare brands to build upon existing research linking sleep quality to athletic performance, employee productivity, and human longevity. 'We began building this technology to explore a provocative question: could a sleep aid communicate in the same electrical dialect as the brain itself? That is, an 'electroceutical,' not a pharmaceutical,' said Dr. Matt Walker. 'We're trying to speak to the brain in its own language – using gentle, precisely timed pulses of electricity, not unlike how a conductor uses subtle hand movements to guide an orchestra into harmony. The goal was to create what I call a 'blast radius' of benefit: deeper sleep, more efficient sleep, and a quicker descent into sleep itself by preparing the brain just before sleep, we're trying to drive more powerful deep-sleep brainwaves, and give you a faster entry into sleep to begin with.' About Somnee Somnee is on a mission to transform sleep and neurological health while fundamentally improving the human experience. The Somnee Smart Sleep headband combines clinically validated neuroscience and award-winning AI-powered neurotechnology to enhance the brain's optimal sleep signals naturally and has been proven to help people fall asleep faster, reduce nighttime awakenings, and improve overall deep sleep quality. Somnee was co-founded by world-leading neuroscientists, including Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., author of New York Times bestseller Why We Sleep and Director of UC Berkeley's Center of Human Sleep Science; Dr. Robert Knight, M.D., Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley; and ex-Fitbit executive, Tim Rosa leads as CEO. The Somnee team has spent decades pioneering sleep research, brain health, wearables, and personalized non-invasive neurostimulation applications. Sleep is one of the most critical functions of the brain, and our deep understanding of the neuroscience of sleep uniquely positions us to help solve the sleep health epidemic.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
R.I. overspent on film tax credits in 2022. Lawmakers must correct $3.2M difference this year.
Initial estimates predict the third season of 'The Gilded Age,' taped in Newport in late 2024, spent nearly $27 million on filming in Rhode Island. Season 3, which debuts June 22 on HBO, would qualify for $8 million in state tax credits. Matt Walker and Taaissa Farmiga appear in the first episode of Season 3, above. (Photo by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO) From 'The Gilded Age' to 'Hocus Pocus 2,' Rhode Island has played a starring role in a growing number of TV shows, movies, commercials and theater productions. So many, in fact, that the state unintentionally approved more tax credits to production companies for local spending than available state funding for the incentive program. The unexpected $3.2 million shortfall, which dates back to credits from productions completed in 2022, was recently revealed in a May 28 memo from Gov. Dan McKee to state lawmakers. McKee suggested dipping into state coffers in the upcoming fiscal 2026 budget to cover the retroactive overrun. Not a welcome proposal as the Rhode Island General Assembly grapples with a projected $185 million deficit heading into the new fiscal year alongside potentially devastating federal funding cuts to major programs like Medicaid. But lawmakers may not have much choice — the 2005 law that created the motion picture tax credit program offers a three-year window for eligible productions to redeem approved credits, which are based on state taxes paid on workers' wages and local goods and services. This is the final year for companies to redeem credits they were awarded in 2022 — the year of the inadvertent overspend. 'The production companies followed the rules,' Brian Daniels, director of the Rhode Island Office of Management and Budget, told lawmakers during a presentation to the Senate Committee on Finance Tuesday night. 'They didn't do anything wrong. There's not a lot of discretion here.' The film incentive program is a perennial hot potato on Smith Hill; proponents insist that offering tax credits for up to 30% of local production costs boosts Rhode Island's economy, creating jobs and incentivizing people to visit (and spend more money) to see the places where their favorite shows and films were created. Naysayers question whether the unquantifiable 'indirect spend' from the program is actually enough to offset the initial upfront investment, also noting that more than half of jobs go to non-Rhode Island residents, as documented in multiple reports by the Rhode Island Office of Revenue Analysis. The revenue office in a July 2024 report reiterated its prior conclusions that the state loses money on the program, with 9 cents in net general revenues for every dollar spent on tax credits from 2019-2021, and $3.19 in total economic output. The findings suggest the program is less beneficial than a 2021 study commissioned by the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce, which touted a 'multiplier effect' in which $1 invested in tax credits for locally filmed productions yielded $5.44 in economic activity for the state. Yet even Feinberg, the program's most stalwart defender, admits there are some problems with timing and accuracy of initial production cost projections. Feinberg helps market the Ocean State to production companies, relying on the tax credit program as a key incentive. He also gives first vetting to tax credit applications, sending an initial determination based on eligibility and projected local spending to the Rhode Island Division of Taxation. Lawmakers determine a maximum amount in each state budget plan for the program based on the preliminary estimates and introductory conversations— many of which never turn into actual productions eligible for state funding. But it is only after taping finishes and a thorough audit by state tax officials that credits are awarded — often years after the initial estimates upon which state budget calculations are made. Usually, the mismatch is not a problem. Costs, and therefore credit amounts, are almost always lower than initially estimated. Until now, when final audits show the state gave out $33.2 million in tax credits to eight productions that wrapped in 2022 — exceeding the $30 million funding cap for that year. In 2022, pent-up post-COVID demand converged with a rush to finish filming in anticipation of writers' and actors' union strikes that happened in 2023 to create what Steven Feinberg, executive director for the Rhode Island Film and Television office, called the 'perfect storm.' 'This was an anomaly,' Feinberg said, speaking to lawmakers Tuesday. 'I've been doing this for 20 years, and this has never happened.' Feinberg also noted the earlier-than-expected completion of an 'Emmy-award winning,' show, referring to the second season of HBO's 'The Gilded Age.' The hit TV series concluded filming its second season in Newport in October 2022, receiving $7.5 million in state tax credits based on more than $28.4 million in local production costs, according to program information submitted to state budget analysts at the May Revenue and Caseload Estimating Conference. A third season of 'The Gilded Age' was taped in Newport in late 2024. Final production costs have not been submitted, but initial estimates predict a nearly $27 million spend, with a corresponding $8 million in tax credits. This was an anomaly. I've been doing this for 20 years, and this has never happened. – Steven Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island Film and Television Office, on exceeding the state's funding cap for motion picture tax credits in 2022 Of the $40 million set aside in 2023 for tax credits, $31 million remains, Daniels said. McKee's proposed $14 billion fiscal 2026 budget would authorize up to $20 million more for the program in 2026. Still, both Daniels and Feinberg acknowledged the need to address timing and accuracy of program awards. Feinberg said his office is working with the state taxation division to keep officials in the loop on potential changes to initial project estimates, while also considering how to tweak state regulations to better align budgets and awards. Feinberg did not immediately respond to requests for more information Wednesday. Senate Finance Chairman Lou DiPalma pointed out that if the overspend was uncovered after the legislative session ended on June 30, the consequences could have been worse. 'What would you do if we're not here?' DiPalma said during the hearing. 'Do you wait till January?' He continued, 'We're fortunate it hasn't manifested itself yet, but what we can do, we should do. What did we learn? We don't want this to happen again.' DiPalma's concern over reporting discrepancies did not preclude him from a more lighthearted request of Feinberg. 'I still want to meet Danny DeVito,' DiPalma said. 'When can that happen?' House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Valarie Lawson both remained noncommittal on the proposed funding adjustment in separate statements Wednesday. The additional money will be considered as part of budget deliberations, which are expected to be hammered out in the next few weeks ahead. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
