Last year, U.S. employers explicitly blamed AI for 55,000 of the 1.17 million job cuts, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's fewer than 5% of layoffs. AI is not yet the bête noire nor the magic elixir that people have made it out to be. (Forgive the mixed metaphors there; proof of a human at the helm.) In August, MIT released a study that found 95% of generative AI pilots fail to generate meaningful return.
Google appears to be running tests on putting real estate sale listings into its search results. Over the weekend, real estate tech strategist Mike DelPrete published mobile phone screenshots of Google Search results showing real estate listings, which appeared to be powered by real estate data company "HouseCanary." The listings allowed users to view the full details of a property's page, request a tour and contact an agent similar to the functions offered on Zillow.com's online marketplace portal.
So apparently, legacy automaker Ford (F) took a look at all the problems it is currently facing, from a supplier that suffered a major fire to tariff problems and economic concerns from potential buyers, and decided the way to fix this was to get more people in the office. That could be an oversimplification, but Ford is reportedly doubling down on this plan, threatening workers with firing if they are not in more.
OpenAI is in a special phase. It's rolling out products and ideas at a rapid clip, and the assumption is that all these projects will work out well and disrupt existing industry players. It reminds me of the golden days of Google and Amazon, when these fast-growing companies announced new initiatives and the market would immediately react. When Google launched internet balloons, mobile giants like Verizon swooned. When Amazon bought Whole Foods, grocery stocks took a beating.
