⌛ Underpaid, overworked, and scared

⌛ Scared, Stressed, Underpaid: The Plight of Workers Behind Google Bard

Behind the scenes of Google Bard are thousands of low-paid workers who have to check and rate Bard’s responses at breakneck speeds.

The labor conditions have grown more frantic as Big Tech companies continue their “AI arms race.”

Workers sometimes had as little as three minutes to issue their response.

However, some answers allegedly involved high-stakes subjects that workers may not be equipped to quickly assess.

For example, Google’s internal training documents ask contractors to determine the helpfulness and veracity of Bard’s dosage recommendations for the blood pressure medication Lisinopril.

One contractor described workers as “scared, stressed, underpaid.”

Google is not alone in its allegedly unfair contractor conditions. OpenAI content moderators in Kenya were exposed to toxic textual inputs for often less than $2 per hour.

🔬 Elon Musk's xAI Assembles All-Star AI Team

Elon Musk has announced the formation of xAI, whose goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”

According to the xAI website, the team will be led by Musk himself and staffed by executives who have previously worked at leading companies in the field of artificial intelligence, including Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft, and Tesla.

The team will also include experts from academic institutions such as the University of Toronto.

He’s reportedly been holding discussions with Tesla and SpaceX investors about funding an AI startup and has acquired thousands of processors from Nvidia for the project.

But despite his work in the field of AI, Musk was among a group of researchers and tech industry leaders who earlier this year called for a pause on the training of powerful AI models.

It’ll be interesting to see how xAI fits into this larger conversation about the responsible development of AI.

🏢 Major Cities Face $800 Billion Decline in Office Building Value

Remote work could wipe $800 billion from the value of office buildings in major cities, according to a report by McKinsey Global Institute.

This represents a 26% decline in valuations compared to 2019 levels, with the potential for losses to deepen to as much as 42%.

The push towards hybrid work has driven down the demand for office space, with vacancy rates rising.

McKinsey’s model predicts that demand for office space will be 13% lower by the end of the decade. Attendance remains 30% lower than pre-pandemic levels, and only 37% of people are back at the office every day.

This trend is set to continue, with more employers downsizing their office space to reduce costs as soon as long-term leases come to an end.

Some tenants are even choosing to buy their way out of long-term contracts rather than wait for their renewal dates.

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