ChatGPT “occupational exposure” is a new area of study for jobs vulnerable to replacement by AI chatbots with strong language skills. A Princeton University survey suggests telemarketers, history teachers and sociologists are among those at risk, while physical laborers needn’t worry right now. A second study, by MIT graduate students, says language-dependent jobs are not destined for replacement, but are in for an AI assist. Asked to complete office tasks like writing press releases, emails and short reports, those using ChatGPT were 37 percent faster, and produced superior results. Continue reading Generative AI May Improve Knowledge Workers’ Productivity

Retail giant Walmart, which perfected the business model of driving down costs to dominate the market, has been surpassed by e-commerce leader Amazon, which just became the largest retail seller outside of China. Driven by a surge in online shopping during the global COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon raked in $610+ billion over the year ending in June, according to FactSet. Walmart just posted sales of $566 billion for the year ending in July. Both are eclipsed by Chinese online retailer Alibaba, the world’s top seller. Continue reading Amazon Bests Walmart as Top Retail Seller Outside of China

Facebook has launched Facebook Campus, a return to its genesis in chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard University dorm room. Students can be part of Facebook Campus by using their school email addresses to create profiles that will only be visible to other students at their college or university. The site will allow students to join groups, participate in classroom discussions and find school events. A Facebook spokeswoman said the new site will not have advertising and that the company has no plans to offer ads in the future. Continue reading Facebook Campus Debuts as Platform for College Students

Determining the impact of screen time isn’t easy. It’s almost impossible to put together a “control group” of people living non-digital lives, and there are no baselines for such factors as “average daily Facebook usage.” Stanford University professor of communication Byron Reeves, in a paper in Human-Computer Interaction, suggested a new approach that eschews the term “screen time” as hopelessly ambiguous. Instead, he argued, scientists should analyze what people are watching — but this data doesn’t exist. Continue reading Researchers Advocate for Deeper Analysis of Online Habits

Those who doubted virtual currency have had their worst fears confirmed: cryptocurrency’s value has plummeted 50 percent from its peak in early January, pushing Bitcoin, for example, below $7,000. Among the problems bedeviling virtual currencies are hackers, scams and Ponzi schemes. Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are scheduled to testify to the Senate banking committee about how they have been trying to corral cryptocurrency markets. Continue reading Cryptocurrencies Are Experiencing a Significant Drop in Value