Bernie Sanders: If AI Is Doing Such Amazing Work, Everyone Should Get a Four-Day Workweek
Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont, has been listening.
Calling the US tech industry on its AI hype — which mostly involves generating shareholder value — Sanders recently posed a rhetorical question on the Joe Rogan podcast: if AI is as powerful as they say, why not give workers a 30-hour week?
"Technology is gonna work to improve us, not just the people who own the technology and the CEOs of large corporations," Sanders said. "You are a worker, your productivity is increasing because we give you AI, right? Instead of throwing you out on the street, I'm gonna reduce your work week to 32 hours."
"That means, give you more time with your family, with your friends, for education, whatever the hell you want to do," the senator suggested. "You don't have to work 40 hours a week anymore."
While a 30-hour work week may sound untenable to some, it's important to remember that the 40 hour week is less than a century old, only becoming federally law in 1940. One could look at that legislation as a concession to placate industrial workers, who in 1933 were agitating for the same 30-hour week which most of us in 2025 can hardly imagine.
Even Bernie agrees. It's "not a radical idea," he told Rogan, adding that "there are companies around the world that are doing it with some success."
However, the reality is that AI is far from ready to bring about optimistic labor reforms like Sanders' laudable 30-day week, or even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's guilt-ridden idea for universal basic income.
Despite widespread fear of AI-fueled layoffs and a job market in shambles, AI's main function is currently to give corporations cover as they outsource high-paying jobs to lower-wage workers. As time goes on, more and more corporate executives are realizing that AI — buggy, inefficient, and stubbornly prone to hallucinations — is no match for human beings.
Still, even in the utopian world where AI could execute tasks accurately, Sanders' idea has some flaws.
Most notable is the issue of unequal exchange between rich and poor countries. Given the tech industry's growing tendency to offload laborious tasks like AI grading to low-wage workers in countries like Kenya, it's likely that an AI-powered 30-hour workweek in the US would only increase inequality in other parts of the world.
We're already seeing signs of this: a 2024 digital labor study found that the AI industry helps rich countries maintain poor nations' economic dependencies on exploitative trade, at the expense of their workers. In poor countries, AI also leads to new types of economic turmoil, while worsening that which already exists.
Within the US, the 30-hour concept also relies on the goodwill of for-profit companies, something they've never offered workers out of the kindness of their hearts.
Even now, with today's deeply flawed AI, workers in the US report that the tech is lowering their productivity and saddling them with more work per day — not less. Meanwhile, studies show massive AI investments have had "no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation."
These issues aside, Sanders' proposal does cut to an exciting fact: that a universal 30-hour workweek is possible, and it's up to the workers of the world to win it for ourselves.
More on labor: Top Venture Capitalist Says AI Will Replace Pretty Much All Jobs Except His, Which Relies on His Unique Genius
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How AI, robotics and late artist Morrisseau are helping fight art fraud
Famed Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau was browsing a Vancouver gallery with his longtime friend Cory Dingle around 1993 when a painting stopped them in their tracks. The pair asked who created it. The answer? "Norval Morrisseau." The trouble? The artist had never seen the work, let alone painted it. "We had a little chuckle and we left," Dingle recalled. "Then, I said, 'What do you want to do about this?' He said, 'You know, you can't police the world.'" Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was a self-taught, trailblazing artist known for his pictographic style and membership in the Indian Group of Seven. He was the first Indigenous artist to have his work shown in a contemporary gallery in Canada and now his paintings sell for millions. But the incident Dingle remembers proved to be an omen. At least 6,000 fake paintings have since been uncovered, costing Morrisseau's estate $100 million in losses. The phenomenon amounts to what police have called the biggest art fraud in world history. Finding fakes is time consuming work. It requires co-operation from galleries and private collectors, a trained, critical eye cast on anything purporting to be made by the late artist and the patience to keep pursuing justice through the court system. But now a new tool has emerged to help the battle: artificial intelligence. Bogged down by the enormity of the task at hand, Morrisseau's estate, which is run by Dingle, partnered with two art-loving professors to build software nicknamed "Norval AI" about three years ago. It can analyze art pieces and determine the probability that they're a genuine Morrisseau. "Because the fakes were so terrible ... we got to a point with our AI that it was so good at picking them out," Dingle said. "There was no problem." Yet the estate knew fakes were still out there. They were just getting harder to detect because court hearings were revealing the tell-tale signs of a fake Morrisseau — thinner paint lines, for example — which allowed fraudsters to make their works even more convincing. Enter Chloë Ryan. The then-engineering student loved making large-scale abstract paintings. Even though such works could sell for a decent amount, they often take weeks or months to create, narrowing the odds that she could make artistry a viable career. She could make prints of her pieces, but they just weren't the same because they lacked the texture of a real painting. The conundrum became a source of inspiration for Ryan, leading her to start tinkering with robots and paint on her Montreal balcony. She eventually developed Acrylic Robotics, a company that uses technology to paint pieces at the behest of an artist. The process starts with an artist painting with a stylus on a drawing table, which acts like a massive tablet. Amazon Web Services software analyzes and logs every movement, detecting millions of details in the piece, including the strokes, brush pressure, pigment and speed. "We like to think of AI as a powerful magnifying glass," said Patricia Nielsen, AWS Canada's head of digital transformation and AI. "It can detect those patterns and the anomalies that might be invisible to the human eye ... so art experts, historians, can dig in further." With that data, Acrylic's robotic arm can then paint a replica so precise, Ryan says it's indistinguishable from an original — exactly what Dingle needed to put Norval AI to the test. A mutual connection put him in touch with Ryan last August. Shortly after, they got to work. Because Morrisseau isn't alive to paint images on Ryan's tablet, Acrylic's robot (Dingle affectionately calls it Dodo) had a more complicated feat to accomplish. Dingle would send Ryan a hi-resolution image of one of Morrisseau's works. Acrylic Robotics would then have an artist learn about eccentricities of his style and paint the piece before Acrylic's robot would give it a try. Everything the robot painted was analyzed by the estate and Norval AI. The two sides have been going back and forth for about a year, picking out errors in the robot's execution and poring over new works. Early editions had several spots where both the estate and Norval AI could tell the robot had stopped a long stroke to pick up more paint — something uncharacteristic of Morrisseau. "If you look at one of our works randomly on the street, you wouldn't be able to say that's made by a robot, but we can't yet do all art under the sun because there's a lot of techniques that we haven't yet built in," Ryan said. "We can't use every tool in an artist's arsenal yet. If an artist is out here finger painting, obviously we can't do stuff like that." Newer editions of the Morrisseaus are about 69 per cent accurate and expected to improve even more. But Dingle admits, "I have kind of been holding back on getting to 100 per cent." He's scared of developing anything too perfect before he and Acrylic Robotics have found a foolproof method for ensuring a Morrisseau recreation can't be passed off as the real thing. It's a concern Ryan shares. "The worst thing that could happen is that we release this without consultation with groups that have been harmed by art forgery and this technology is used against artists," she said. They're currently exploring markings or other features that can be embedded in pieces to denote they're not originals. Once they settle on an ideal method, they'll have an avenue to disseminate recreations of Morrisseau's work — responsibly. While some might think that's the last thing an estate plagued by forgeries would want to do, Dingle sees it as a way to bring Morrisseau's work to the people who would value it most. "There's two schools named after Norval. There are healing institutions. There are academic institutions. There are remote Indigenous communities," said Dingle, sitting in front of a rarely-shown Morrisseau. "They could never afford to buy this painting, to hang it in their halls, to have the healing and the lessons of it, so we need to be able to produce high level reproductions that bring the life of that painting to these places." This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025. Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
23 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Is AI a Career Threat or a Competitive Edge for Attorneys?
Why Lawyers and Firms are Racing to Become Tech Experts As artificial intelligence promises to reshape the legal profession, much of the conversation centers on which jobs will disappear. But attorneys looking to secure their future may need to flip the script: Rather than viewing AI as a threat, successful lawyers are becoming subject matter experts in the technology itself. 'To be effective counselors, attorneys working at the forefront of innovation need to understand the relevant technology at a deep level,' said Zachary M. Briers, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP focusing on complex technology and intellectual property issues. 'When it comes to technology companies, almost all difficult legal issues turn on granular distinctions in technological advancements. This is particularly true with new platform technologies, such as AI, which defy conventional legal analyses,' Briers added. This need will only increase as litigation around artificial intelligence becomes more complex, according to Nathaniel L. Bach, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. 'The more a lawsuit or advice implicates the inner workings of an AI model, the more attorneys will need to know to properly advise clients, ask the right questions of adversaries, and explain the technology to courts in both accurate and persuasive ways,' said Bach. Having more than 'a surface-level understanding' of AI may even be a matter of professional competence, said Daniel B. Garrie, a mediator, arbitrator and special master with JAMS, an alternative dispute resolution provider. He is also a founder and partner of Law & Forensics, a legal engineering firm. 'Lawyers are ethically obligated to stay abreast of technological advancements under the ABA's Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8,' said Garrie. 'A deeper comprehension of how AI systems function, including their design, data dependencies, and operational limitations, is crucial for providing competent advice, particularly in areas like eDiscovery, data privacy and intellectual property disputes,' he continued. Beyond helping to win cases and complying with ethical obligations, understanding AI could be a major career booster. David Lisson, the head of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's GenAI litigation initiative, said that the AI space represented a big opportunity for attorneys at the start of their career - a way to stand out from the pack. 'I always think the key to a successful junior associate is being an expert in something. And this is an area that you can really dig into,' he said. 'If you come and figure out what this model is doing and how it's doing it, you'll be the one that the senior attorney comes to, right? And you'll be the one that the client comes to because you're the one that understands what's actually going on.' From a branding perspective, at least, firms appear to understand the value in highlighting the AI credentials of their attorneys. Over the past two years, a flurry of AI practice groups has emerged in California and elsewhere. But experts, including those who head up these groups, acknowledge that this strategy will need to evolve. 'This trend has begun and will continue, but these groups will almost certainly evolve to be increasingly specialized over time, as it becomes clear that 'AI' is far too broad a category to usefully define a practice,' Keith Enright, cochair of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP's Artificial Intelligence Practice Group said. Bach said that AI practice groups were both 'a necessity and a calling card' for many firms. To be effective, these groups would need to encompass practice areas spanning intellectual property, privacy and technology. 'The AI space is too big and moves too fast for any one lawyer to know everything,' he said. That's a sentiment shared by Peter H. Werner, co-chair of Cooley LLP's global emerging companies and venture capital practice group. He said that the recent emergence of AI practice groups was 'similar to having an 'internet' practice group in the 1990s.' 'Some firms are forming 'AI practice groups' to signal to the market that they're focused on AI-related things. But the ubiquity of AI and related technologies will mean that the work that is done in every practice will be impacted by AI,' he said. He added that Cooley instead has 'an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental internal task force that's intended to be a clearinghouse to coordinate our work on AI-related matters, many of which implicate multiple practices.' Briers said that while 'most major firms now have a practice group that is dedicated to AI-related issues,' it was 'not enough that a few attorneys at each firm become familiar with this disruptive technology. It needs to be a firm-wide initiative.' Attorneys who wish to become AI-literate have options. Law schools appear attuned to the fact that there will be an increasing demand for such knowledge. A 2024 survey from the American Bar Association found that more than half of respondent schools now offer classes on AI. Many of these initial efforts focus on introducing students to the appropriate and ethical use of AI tools in their practice. However, some go further: UC Berkeley, for example, will begin offering a specialization in AI law and regulation this summer as part of its executive track LLM program, including a unit on the fundamentals of AI technology. The curriculum for the new certificate was designed in consultation with an advisory group of industry leaders, including representatives from Anthropic and Meta. Other schools are offering shorter standalone graduate certificates or programs in artificial intelligence for legal practitioners, including USC Gould School of Law and Harvard Law School. Beyond these programs, attorneys with an existing science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) background might be at an advantage to their colleagues in an AI world, though legal experts disagree on the significance of this. 'The shift to AI is indeed an opportunity for attorneys with a background in computer science, data science, or engineering areas to gain a distinct advantage in understanding the nuances of AI-related legal challenges,' Garrie said. 'As AI legal work often intersects with technical fields like cybersecurity, data analytics and software licensing, firms may increasingly value and recruit legal talent with such dual credentials. This intersectional expertise enhances both client trust and legal efficacy,' he added. Clinton Ehrlich, a partner at Trial Lawyers for Justice who is a member of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Artificial Intelligence Committee and has a computer science background, said lawyers working on AI cases or issues was analogous to lawyers working in the patent space, where many attorneys have a STEM background. 'This is an area of the law where skills are required beyond those that most generalists have,' Ehrlich said. 'It doesn't mean that a generalist couldn't be involved on a team that's litigating a case involving questions about AI, but I think it's very important to have at least one team member with really deep domain knowledge of how these systems work, so that you aren't just translating everything through the medium of popular science,' he said. Others were more circumspect, emphasizing that a willingness to learn and engage was far more important than prior education experience. Werner said that attorneys 'don't necessarily need a technical degree for most things, but you need curiosity. The best lawyers are quick studies. We work with cutting edge technology and life sciences companies, using complex methodologies to do complicated things.' He predicted that as the law and technology become increasingly intertwined, we could witness 'hybrid teams of people at firms that include lawyers and technologists that collectively pitch for and deliver service to clients – think e-discovery on steroids.' According to Enright, 'Intellectual fluidity and the ability to frame questions effectively will be vastly more valuable than a STEM background.' Vivek Mohan, the other co-chair of Gibson Dunn's artificial intelligence practice, said that whenever he talks to law students and recent graduates interested in the practice area, he tells them, 'I look for ongoing, demonstrated interest. Certainly, an undergraduate degree in a related area is a strong signal of interest.' But he cautioned that an attorney's role is 'not to substitute ourselves for the engineers or AI researchers at our companies. It is to listen carefully, ask probing questions and then provide the best legal advice we can.' He added that attorneys interested in AI should get comfortable with occasionally not knowing what is going on with AI models, given even their engineers are not always able to explain how a model reached a particular answer. 'Learn what you can, but you have to be able to get comfortable with operating in an environment that carries a certain degree of uncertainty,' he advised. The other risk of overemphasizing prior education? Instilling a sense that technological stasis is acceptable, said Briers. 'An engineering background might be helpful in understanding these new technologies, but it's not necessary. In my experience, too many attorneys who lack a STEM background use it as an excuse to not learn new technological skills. They do so to the detriment of their clients' interests,' he said. The Los Angeles/San Francisco Daily Journal is a publication for lawyers practicing in California, featuring updates on the courts, regulatory changes, the State Bar and the legal community at large.
Business Insider
24 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Here are the 10 most expensive cities for the ultra-rich in 2025 — and the quiet power shift shaping the next luxury capitals
Singapore, London, and Hong Kong still top the charts as the world's most expensive cities — but upstarts like Dubai, Bangkok, and Tokyo are rising fast as global wealth patterns shift. For the third year running, Singapore ranked as the world's most expensive city for high-net-worth individuals, according to the latest Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report from Julius Baer Group, a Swiss wealth management group. London moved into second place, nudging Hong Kong into third — but behind these familiar frontrunners, a quiet transformation could soon redraw the global map for the super wealthy The 2025 edition of the report, published on Monday, tracked the cost of what it called "living well" — meaning the ability to afford and regularly spend on 20 luxury goods and services that high-net-worth individuals typically enjoy. These include private school fees, luxury property, watches, fancy dinners, and business class flights. Pricing data was collected across 25 cities between November 2024 and March 2025, and each city was ranked based on the weighted-average total cost of all 20 items, converted into US dollars. To complement the price index, Julius Baer also conducted a separate Lifestyle Survey, polling 360 high-net-worth individuals across 15 countries in February and March 2025 to understand how the wealthy are spending and investing. While the methodology is robust, it does not account for geopolitical shifts that followed, including the Trump administration's April tariff announcements, and its relatively small sample size may limit broad conclusions. Still, the findings point to a clear shift in momentum: while the podium remains stable, several key cities — especially in Asia and the Middle East — are climbing fast, suggesting a broader power shift in global luxury hubs. The top 10 most expensive cities for the wealthy in 2025 Singapore. London. Hong Kong. Monaco. Zurich. Shanghai. Dubai. New York. Paris. Milan. The quiet rise of new luxury capitals Several emerging cities climbed the rankings at an unexpected pace, especially in Asia and the Middle East. Dubai jumped five spots to 7th place, edging closer to European strongholds like Monaco and Zurich. Bangkok and Tokyo both rose six positions, landing at 11th and 17th, respectively, driven by rising costs of fashion, watches, and property. Bangkok's "growing upper-middle class has had a direct impact on the expansion of the local luxury market," Rishabh Saksena, cohead of Julius Baer's global asset class specialists, told Business Insider. "Increased wealth has mechanically driven demand for luxury goods and services, allowing the development of luxury malls, fine dining, and experiences such as spas," he said. "Additionally, the city benefits from Asia's long-standing appeal as a global tourism destination." Tokyo's rise reflects a similar trend. " Tokyo, and Japan more broadly, has long been a culturally rich and influential region, with a strong luxury market, especially in areas such as fashion, fine dining, and experiences," Saksena added. "The recent global shift among HNWIs toward valuing experiences over goods has further enhanced Tokyo's attractivity and appeal." Meanwhile, Shanghai, which topped the index in 2022, fell from 4th to 6th place — a sign that its dominance may be fading São Paulo and Mexico City also dropped notably in the rankings. "Dubai is nipping at the heels of the bastion cities in the region for wealth and lifestyle — London, Monaco, and Zurich — in a trend that is likely to continue as the Emirate ups the ante on offering an attractive residence proposition for HNWIs," the report said. Behind the movements is a growing desire among the ultrawealthy for stability, wellness, and future-focused cities. The report also notes that Dubai's appeal lies in tax advantages, luxury infrastructure, and a booming property market, while Bangkok and Tokyo benefit from regional economic momentum and cultural cachet. What's driving the change? The global average cost of "living well" actually declined 2% in US dollar terms between 2024 and 2025 — a rare drop in a sector typically shielded from macroeconomic headwinds. Yet, beneath that decline are sharp regional contrasts: Business class air fares jumped 18.2% globally, driven by a shortage of jets and booming demand for premium pleasure travel. Luxury goods like handbags and jewellery fell in price, reflecting shifting consumer priorities. Private school fees soared in cities like London, where new tax rules drove up costs by over 25%. More broadly, high-net-worth individuals increasingly prioritize experiences over possessions and longevity over status. These include spending more on wellness, curated travel, and health services, especially in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. "The main shift we've seen recently is the growing move toward aspirational consumption among HNWIs, who increasingly value experiences over physical goods," Mark Matthews, Head of Research Asia at Julius Baer, told BI. "This trend varies from one location to another. Markets with a long cultural history of luxury goods (e.g., Switzerland with watches or Germany with cars) tend to show a slower transition toward 'experience-based' spending," he added. Data from the Lifestyle Survey backs this up. While luxury spending growth has cooled in Europe — where only 36% of high-net-worth individuals reported spending more on hotels — HNWIs in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America continue to ramp up their spending on high-end fashion, jewellery, and watches. In APAC, 65% reported increasing spending on both hotels and watches, and 63% on women's fashion. In the Middle East, 52% spent more on hotels and 50% on fine jewellery. Across the board, travel and hospitality remain top spending priorities, with fine dining and five-star hotels leading the way. A Eurasian future? The report also hints at a broader geopolitical rebalancing in how — and where — the world's wealthy choose to live. "There is already talk of many wealthy Americans decamping to Europe for the next four years — and possibly forever," Julius Baer's report said, citing affluent individuals looking for political stability and strong institutions. Cities like London, despite Brexit and political change, remain magnets for global wealth thanks to world-class education, healthcare, and cultural capital. Meanwhile, Dubai plans to double the size of its economy by 2033 and is quickly becoming a rival to Europe's traditional elite enclaves.
