AI weekly: 3.5 day work-week?

Happy Sunday,

Today in our newsletter we touch on the impact of a 3.5-day workweek, headlines (will AI surpass humans by 2030) and who raised money.

Let’s dive in!

Is a 3.5-day work-week good?

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon made headlines this week when he claimed AI could bring forth a 3.5 day work-week. Now, this remains an optimistic view and the implication is that this time-period is still a few decades away.

But what would this mean, and is this a good thing?

There are several positives:

• More free time for personal pursuits

• Once rote tasks are removed the remaining work would be mentally stimulating

• Parental benefits, eg reduced child-raising costs (nursery)

But there are also risks:

• Fewer human-based jobs — and the related cultural and economic impacts

• More free time may deepen existing social concerns, eg loneliness epidemic

• Possible disproportionate impact, ie white collar jobs more likely to benefit

With technology comes adjustment. And we are still in the early phases of the AI transition, but it’s important to account for both the pros & cons when dealing with foundational change.

AI Headlines 🤖

• Airbnb uses AI to detect and prevent guests from hosting parties in rented units (link)

• Tom Hanks warns followers of deep fake scam after faux dental ad goes viral (link)

• OpenAI CTO warns AI’s impact on international politics, rivals that of nuclear weapons (link)

• Softbank CEO predicts AI will surpass human intelligence tenfold by 2030 (link)

• Anthropic seeks $20-$30b, surpassing OpenAI's valuation multiple on revenue (link)

• IBM’s CEO believes AI won’t eliminate programmers; instead, will create jobs (link)

• UK's first treason conviction in 40 years is an AI chatbot-inspired assassination attempt (link)

Who’s Raising 💰

• Metropolis uses AI to track and pay for parking lots. Secured $1b

• Unitary AI builds context-aware AI to detect harmful video content. Raised $15m

• Humata AI utilizes AI to answer PDF content questions. Raised $3.5m

• LANGaware uses AI to detect cognitive and mental health conditions. Raised $2m.

• Meeno aims to combat loneliness with an AI chatbot app. Raised $3.9m

• GiftPack streamlines the corporate gifting process through AI. Gained $4.3m.

Chart of the week

Gen-AI companies are hiring a lot

Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here!