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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The ‘white-collar bloodbath' is all part of the AI hype machine
A version of this story appeared in CNN Business' Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. If the CEO of a soda company declared that soda-making technology is getting so good it's going to ruin the global economy, you'd be forgiven for thinking that person is either lying or fully detached from reality. Yet when tech CEOs do the same thing, people tend to perk up. ICYMI: The 42-year-old billionaire Dario Amodei, who runs the AI firm Anthropic, told Axios this week that the technology he and other companies are building could wipe out half of all entry-level office jobs … sometime soon. Maybe in the next couple of years, he said. He reiterated that claim in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday. 'AI is starting to get better than humans at almost all intellectual tasks, and we're going to collectively, as a society, grapple with it,' Amodei told Cooper. 'AI is going to get better at what everyone does, including what I do, including what other CEOs do.' To be clear, Amodei didn't cite any research or evidence for that 50% estimate. And that was just one of many of the wild claims he made that are increasingly part of a Silicon Valley script: AI will fix everything, but first it has to ruin everything. Why? Just trust us. In this as-yet fictional world, 'cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don't have jobs,' Amodei told Axios, repeating one of the industry's favorite unfalsifiable claims about a disease-free utopia on the horizon, courtesy of AI. But how will the US economy, in particular, grow so robustly when the jobless masses can't afford to buy anything? Amodei didn't say. (As an aside: I asked labor economist Aaron Sojourner about this scenario of high unemployment plus strong economic growth, and he said there is a theory of the case, if you squint really hard. Amodei may believe that AI can increase productivity and make each hour of labor create more goods and services. But if that's the case, he's imagining 'a 30% jump in labor productivity to get that combination of unemployment and GDP growth,' said Sojourner, a senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. 'That is a wildly unprecedented vision,' he added, noting that in the 1980s and 90s, computer adoption gave the world all kinds of tools that reshaped the labor market. But labor productivity grew just 2% to 3%.) Anyway. The point is, Amodei is a salesman, and it's in his interest to make his product appear inevitable and so powerful it's scary. Axios framed Amodei's economic prediction as a 'white-collar bloodbath.' Even some AI optimists were put off by Amodei's stark characterization. 'Someone needs to remind the CEO that at one point there were more than (2 million) secretaries. There were also separate employees to do in office dictation, wrote tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban on Bluesky. 'They were the original white collar displacements. New companies with new jobs will come from AI and increase TOTAL employment.' Little of what Amodei told Axios was new, but it was calibrated to sound just outrageous enough to draw attention to Anthropic's work, days after it released a major model update to its Claude chatbot, one of the top rivals to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Amodei stands to profit off the very technology he claims will gut the labor market. But here he is, telling everyone the truth and sounding the alarm! He's trying to warn us, he's one of the good ones! Yeaaahhh. So, this is kind of Anthropic's whole ~thing.~ It refers to itself primarily as an 'AI safety and research' company. They are the AI guys who see the potential harms of AI clearly — not through the rose-colored glasses worn by the techno-utopian simps over at OpenAI. (In fact, Anthropic's founders, including Amodei, left OpenAI over ideological differences.) Look, I want to live a cancer-free utopia where I only have to work a few hours a week and there's no poverty and stuff just works. But do I believe that generative AI is the key to unlocking that fantasyland? I do not. And no tech pioneers have proven their case. Generative AI from large language models like ChatGPT and Claude are really good at some very specific stuff: They can summarize documents, write dumb emails, help kids cheat on their homework, and even recommend summer reading lists so obscure not even the authors knew they'd written them. Heck, they could probably generate this newsletter and mimic my voice. But they hit their limits fast. They hallucinate. They get basic facts wrong. They are susceptible manipulation. (And those are all things we human beings can do just fine on our own.) If AI companies can take these handy, quasi-reliable text predictors and turn them into an economic revolution, fine. But that seems so far off in the future that Amodei's warnings feel more like an ad than a PSA. It's on them to show their work: Show us how AI could be so destructive and how Anthropic can fix it — rather than just shouting about the risks. . Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Last year, Trump promised bitcoin bros a seat at the table. For better or worse, he wasn't lying
A version of this story appeared in CNN Business' Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. Last July, Donald Trump made a campaign stop that served as his crypto coming out party. Trump, a guy who has an aide follow him around with a portable printer so he can read the internet, got onstage at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville and promised the moon to a crowd of extremely online crypto-Libertarians. 'Oh, you're going to be very happy with me,' he said, before vowing to make America the 'crypto capital of the planet.' With the zeal of the converted, he rattled off crypto shibboleths, promising to 'fire' Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler (the Biden-era bogeyman the industry loved to blame for its problems), to create a 'strategic national bitcoin stockpile' and even pardon Ross Ulbricht — the creator of the Silk Road digital marketplace used primarily for selling drugs on the dark web, who was serving a life sentence. Since retaking office, Trump has kept all of those promises (technically — Gensler stepped down before Trump could fire him). And he's gone even further. 'Maybe the most important thing that we did for this community, we reject regulators and we fired Gary Gensler, and we're gonna fire everybody like him,' said Vice President JD Vance at a crypto conference on Wednesday. It's hard to overstate how much the president has changed his tune on crypto, which he criticized in his first term as 'highly volatile and based on thin air.' Now, Trump's personal wealth is estimated to include $2.9 billion tied to his digital asset projects — representing some 37% of his total fortune, according to an April report from the left-leaning State Democracy Defenders Fund. Bitcoin, a bellwether for crypto, has shot up 67% since Trump spoke in Nashville last year. This week, Trump deepened his financial ties to the alternative financial industry that his administration is tasked with regulating. His two oldest sons and Vance took his spot headlining this year's Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where they reassured supporters that Team Trump is, in Don Jr.'s words, 'seriously long crypto.' On Tuesday, Trump's media company said it would raise $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin — a move that mimics a corporate cash-management strategy popularized by MicroStrategy (now known as Strategy) and Tesla. Two things to know about what's going on here. First: Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the president's social media platform, Truth Social, is not a company in a traditional sense of, like, a business that makes money. It is a perpetually unprofitable entity that generates almost no revenue, but public interest in Trump keeps the company's stock market value elevated — much like a meme stock. By becoming more of a bitcoin holding company, TMTG offers traditional investors exposure to bitcoin's gains (and losses) without the hassle of actually buying bitcoin and managing it in a digital wallet themselves. 'Holding bitcoin on a balance sheet is part financial strategy, part cultural signaling,' said Temujin Louie, CEO of blockchain platform Wanchain. 'TMTG's move is more politically charged. Given its ties to President Trump, any decision must inevitably align with the current administration's rhetoric and embrace of cryptocurrencies as a populist tool.' Second: The bitcoin play adds another halo of legitimacy around an asset that investors are still afraid of. The appearance of credibility has long eluded crypto because, well, it's just so useful for doing crimes, and its advocates haven't done a great job articulating mainstream use cases for digital money that you can't actually buy much with. But having an evangelist in the West Wing seems to be changing that. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $111,000 last week, fueled in part by the advancement of legislations that would create the first federal rules around stablecoins, a subcategory of crypto, a key step the industry has been lobbying for. 'I'm here today to say loud and clear with President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House,' Vance said Wednesday at the Bitcoin Conference. He also implored crypto fans to carry last year's voting momentum forward for the 2026 midterms, and boasted that he personally still holds 'a fair amount of bitcoin today.' Lawyers and ethics experts aren't mincing words when they say Trump's crypto ventures open the door to all kinds of potential corruption. 'The only reason this isn't a crime is because the criminal conflict-of-interest statute does not apply to the president or the vice president,' Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told CNN. 'The president and his family are investing in crypto — riding a bubble that may someday burst. The systemic impact on the economy could trigger another financial crisis.' The White House has repeatedly said the president has no conflicts of interest, and lashed out at the media for even asking. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently said it was 'frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.' CNN's Matt Egan contributed reporting. Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Shannon Sharpe makes a shocking announcement related to his work days after being sued for $50 million for sexual assault
Shannon Sharpe faces a $50 million lawsuit.(Image via Janssen) Shannon Sharpe, the NFL legend, has not shied away from filming for his podcasts even after he has been facing a $50 million lawsuit. The NFL legend, who was once known for his talent, has been brutally trolled and mocked by fans, which even led to him stepping down from his role at ESPN's First Take. Recently, Shannon Sharpe announced a change in his career that has shocked fans. Shannon Sharpe made a huge decision related to his popular Nightcap podcast , weeks after he was sued for $50 million FORGET HIS NAILS! Unc & Ocho tell Bears QB Caleb Williams to WIN & the DRAMA will go AWAY | Nightcap While Shannon Sharpe has stepped down from First Take till NFL preseason begins, he has continued shooting for his very popular podcast, Nightcap, with co-host Chad Ochocinco. The two had planned a tour for Nightcap in the summer, but it seems like that is not happening anymore. On a recent episode of Nightcap, Shannon Sharpe issued a heartbreaking announcement. The NFL legend said, 'We've decided to postpone the Nightcap tour. We look forward to seeing you guys in the summer of 2026. It's going to be even bigger, even better.' Shannon Sharpe continued, 'But Ocho and I have come to the conclusion that this is the best thing as of right now, was to postpone the tour. We look forward to seeing each and every one of you in 2026.' While neither Shannon Sharpe nor Chad Ochocinco has revealed the reason for postponing their Nightcap tour, many fans have linked it to the sexual assault lawsuit that the NFL legend is facing currently. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like गुड़गांव में बिक्री के लिए 3बीएचके फ्लैट (कीमतें जांचें) 3BHK Flat For Sale | Search Ads और जानें Undo Shannon Sharpe has maintained his innocence and issued multiple statements where he revealed he was in a relationship with the young woman The last few weeks have shocked fans as the young woman accused Shannon Sharpe of sexually assaulting her multiple times. However, Shannon Sharpe has opened up about it and issued a statement where he made it clear that the two were in a relationship and got intimate consensually. Shannon Sharpe's lawyers also leaked the texts that were exchanged between him and the young woman to prove that the two were in a relationship. The statement issued by Shannon Sharpe's lawyers read as, "To set the record straight, we are releasing several of [Doe's] own explicit text messages to…and, in many cases, initiated by her with specific and graphic requests," the statement read. However, even after constantly denied the sexual assault accusations, Shannon Sharpe continues to get mocked by his fans. Also Read: 'It's them young ones': Shannon Sharpe's resurfaced comments on younger women spark outrage amid $50 million sexual assault lawsuit Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Former NBA star says Lakers should bring back Dwight Howard
Former NBA star says Lakers should bring back Dwight Howard The Los Angeles Lakers' top priority this offseason is to acquire a starting-caliber center who will shut down the middle defensively, gobble up rebounds, run the floor in transition and convert dunks off lob passes. They have already been linked to a few players, most of whom are relatively young and could play alongside Luka Doncic for at least the next few years. The Lakers have had a hole at the center position for some time now, even before they traded superstar big man Anthony Davis to get Doncic in early February. For a while, some fans were clamoring for the team to bring back Dwight Howard, who helped hold down the center position during the 2019-20 season when it won the NBA championship. Former NBA star Jermaine O'Neal said on the "Nightcap" podcast that the Lakers should simply bring Howard back to plug their hole at the 5. "I don't know why the NBA is getting away from the veterans," O'Neal said. "I'd use Dwight Howard. He always seems to be in shape. "... He's one of the best defenders of all time to come down to protecting the rim and rebounding that basketball." Howard did a great job during the 2019-20 season of putting his ego aside, embracing a lesser role than what he had been used to for many years and giving Los Angeles the defense, rebounding and hustle it needed to win it all. He returned to the Purple and Gold for the 2021-22 season, and while he could still help on the boards, his defense had dramatically declined. No NBA team signed him for the following season, and he had to head to Southeast Asia to play pro ball. Howard will turn 40 years of age in December, and he simply isn't able to provide the team with what it needs at the center position. Besides, since Doncic is 26 years of age and can become a free agent next summer, it needs to acquire a young center who can play alongside him for a while, not someone who is at the end of his career.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk is retreating from politics just as his corporate empire stumbles
A version of this story appeared in CNN Business' Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. Elon Musk says he is back to 'spending 24/7 at work' and sleeping in conference rooms — seemingly diving head-first back into corporate life after five months of oligarch larping in Washington. That kind of performative overwork often comes across these days as eye-roll-worthy — another tech entrepreneur peacocking their devotion to The Grind. Musk is a longtime pusher of such 'extremely hardcore' work cultures. But given the scale and severity of the problems hitting Musk's business empire all at once, an all-out effort may be appropriate. Tesla sales are tanking. The Cybertruck is shaping up to be a flop for the ages. The social media site X needs 'major operational improvements,' according to Musk, after a widespread outage over the weekend, which came less than two weeks after xAI's Grok briefly morphed into a conspiracy theorist that wouldn't shut up about 'White genocide.' The last two SpaceX launches ended with the multibillion-dollar spacecraft blowing up in midair. (The latest launch is happening Tuesday night, around Nightcap's publish time, so check here for the latest.) Investors appear relieved that Musk is refocusing on his day job(s). Shares of Tesla — the only publicly traded Musk-owned enterprise — have shot up 25% in the past month (though they are still in a hole relative to their December peak). That optimism is conditioned on Musk actually fixing the problems (many of them self-inflicted) plaguing the EV maker while also delivering on his promise to launch an autonomous robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in the coming weeks. It'd be a tall order for any CEO. It is a gargantuan ask for someone running multiple flailing companies at the same time. A month ago, Tesla reported a 70% drop in earnings for the first quarter. That (along with a report in the Wall Street Journal that said Tesla's board had gone shopping for a new CEO) seemed to be a wakeup call for the billionaire, whose foray into far-right politics turned out to be disastrous for the electric vehicle brand. Data released Tuesday showed Tesla's European sales fell by about 50% — the fourth month in a row of declining year-over-year sales for the company. There are two primary reasons why: Europeans are rejecting Musk's personal politics, and choosing to buy much-cheaper EVs from Chinese carmakers such as BYD. (ICYMI: BYD is the brand Musk once scoffed at and is now eating Tesla's lunch on the global stage.) It remains to be seen how Musk will deal with the Cybertruck, his pet project that's become a 7,000-pound albatross for Tesla, plagued by repeated recalls (including one for a piece of trim that was literally falling off the vehicle) and weak sales. Two years ago, Musk said with a straight face that he expected to add 250,000 Cybertrucks a year to American roads. Tesla sold 40,000 of them last year. In the first quarter of this year, it sold only 6,400, according to Cox Automotive. If sales don't pick up, Tesla is on track to notch only about one-tenth of its annual goal. The Cybertrucks are losing value fast. Tesla only recently started allowing trade-ins, and two customers told Business Insider that their trade-in estimates amounted to roughly 37% depreciation after just a year. On top of all that, Musk — who has a history of overpromising and missing deadlines by years — plans to launch Tesla's driverless ride-hailing service next month in Austin. But already, questions are swirling about Tesla's ability to pull that off. According to Fortune, 'key groups — including Austin's transportation department, Austin's emergency first responders, and federal regulators — are still missing important information about the self-driving machines.' The stakes are high. Tech analyst Dan Ives, who has been uncharacteristically critical of Musk's political involvement and its damage to the Tesla brand, said in a note last week that 'the vast majority' of Tesla's valuation upside is centered on the success of its 'autonomous vision taking hold.' The Austin event is the 'beginning of this next era of growth for Musk and Tesla.' CNN's Anna Cooban contributed reporting.
