Latest news with #jobloss
TechCrunch
8 hours ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
As job losses loom, Anthropic launches program to track AI's economic fallout
Silicon Valley has opined on the promise of generative AI to forge new career paths and economic opportunities – like the newly coveted solo unicorn startup. Banks and analysts have touted AI's potential to boost GDP. But those gains are unlikely to be distributed equally in the face of what many expect to be widespread AI-related job loss. Amid this backdrop, Anthropic on Friday launched its Economic Futures Program, a new initiative to support research on AI's impacts on the labor market and global economy and to develop policy proposals to prepare for the shift. 'Everybody's asking questions about what are the economic impacts [of AI], both positive and negative,' Sarah Heck, head of policy programs and partnerships at Anthropic, told TechCrunch. 'It's really important to root these conversations in evidence and not have predetermined outcomes or views on what's going to [happen].' At least one prominent name has shared his views on the potential economic impact of AI: Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei. In May, Amodei predicted that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to as high as 20% in the next one to five years. When asked if one of the key goals of Anthropic's Economic Futures Program was to research ways to mitigate AI-related job loss, Heck was cautious, noting that the disruptive shifts AI will bring could be 'both good and bad.' 'I think the key goal is to figure out what is actually happening,' she said. 'If there is job loss, then we should convene a collective group of thinkers to talk about mitigation. If there will be huge GDP expansion, great. We should also convene policy makers to figure out what to do with that. I don't think any of this will be a monolith.' The program builds on Anthropic's existing Economic Index, launched in February, which open-sources aggregated, anonymized data to analyze the effects of AI on labor markets and the economy over time – data that many of its competitors lock behind corporate walls. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The program will focus on three main areas: providing grants to researchers investigating AI's effect on labor, productivity, and value creation; creating forums to develop and evaluate policy proposals to prepare for AI's economic impacts; and building datasets to track AI's economic usage and impact. Anthropic is kicking off the program with some action items. The company has opened applications for its rapid grants of up to $50,000 for 'empirical research on AI's economic impacts,' as well as evidence-based policy proposals for Anthropic-hosted symposia events in Washington, D.C. and Europe in the fall. Anthropic is also seeking partnerships with independent research institutions and will provide partners with Claude API credits and other resources to support research. For the grants, Heck noted that Anthropic is looking for individuals, academics, or teams that can come up with high-quality data in a short period of time. 'We want to be able to complete it within six months,' she said. 'It doesn't necessarily have to be peer-reviewed.' For the symposia, Anthropic wants policy ideas from a wide variety of backgrounds and intellectual perspectives, said Heck. She noted that policy proposals would go 'beyond labor.' 'We want to understand more about the transitions,' she said. 'How do workflows happen in new ways? How are new jobs being created that nobody ever contemplated before?…How are certain skills remaining valuable while others are not?' Heck said Anthropic also hopes to study the effects of AI on fiscal policy. For example, what happens if there's a major shift in the way enterprises see value creation? 'We really want to open the aperture here on things that can be studied,' Heck said. 'Labor is certainly one of them, but it's a much broader swath.' Anthropic rival OpenAI released its own Economic Blueprint in January, which focuses more on helping the public adopt AI tools, building robust AI infrastructure and establishing 'AI economic zones' that streamline regulations to promote investment. While OpenAI's Stargate project to build data centers across the U.S. in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank would create thousands of construction jobs, OpenAI doesn't directly address AI-related job loss in its economic blueprint. OpenAI's blueprint does, however, outline frameworks where government could play a role in supply chain training pipelines, investing in AI literacy, supporting regional training programs, and scaling public university access to compute to foster local AI-literate workforces. Anthropic's economic impact program is part of a slow but growing shift among some tech companies to position themselves as part of the solution to the disruption they're helping to create – whether out of reputational concern, genuine altruism, or a mix of both. For instance, on Thursday, ride-hail company Lyft launched a forum to gather input from human drivers as it starts integrating robotaxis into its platform.
Top Gear
9 hours ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Nissan has confirmed job losses at its factory in Sunderland
Ailing carmaker needs to cut around 250 employees via voluntary leave scheme Turn on Javascript to see all the available pictures. Nissan has confirmed there will be some job losses at its factory in Sunderland. The Japanese carmaker said: 'In order to support future competitiveness, this week we are beginning discussions with some of our team in Sunderland about the opportunity to voluntarily leave Nissan, with support from the company.'
CNA
15 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
In 2018, I lost my IT job and thought I'd never be in tech again. Now I teach AI to students and adult learners
In late 2018, I was the head of IT in a firm I had dedicated many years of my life to. One afternoon, I was called into a meeting, handed an envelope, and told that my role had been made redundant. Just like that, 18 years of hard work, late nights and quiet sacrifices went up in smoke. The first thing I did was call my wife. She didn't say much, just 'Come home first. We'll figure it out.' Her words grounded me in that moment. Because truthfully, my mind was completely blank – I had no idea what to do next. For the next three years, I felt like I was floating. Life became a meaningless blur of job applications sent into the void, polite rejections, and radio silence. With bills to pay, I became a Grab driver. It was honest work, and I came to appreciate the structure of the routine and the small human moments in picking up a sleepy executive at 6am or chatting with retirees on the way to the clinic. And then COVID-19 hit. Almost overnight, the roads emptied. My bookings dropped to a trickle; sometimes I'd wait 40 minutes for a single ride. I drove 10-12 hours each day and barely made enough to cover petrol, let alone meals, utilities, and my family's other needs. Still, every single dollar mattered. Behind the wheel, I fought not just physical exhaustion , but doubt. How long could I keep going like this? I carried my burdens with clenched teeth and silent prayers, but they only seemed to be growing heavier each day. For three years, I was running on empty both physically and emotionally. I asked myself over and over: 'Yatim, is this what you have become?' CHOOSING TO BELIEVE One night, tired from hours of driving with little reward, I came across the SGUnited Skills programme on my phone. My gaze caught on a course on smart factory and data engineering at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). The course description was peppered with words like 'Internet of Things' (or IoT), 'automation systems' and 'data integration' – all topics that had been mere emerging buzzwords when I was last working in IT. In that moment, I had a painful realisation: I had spent nearly two decades in tech, leading teams and building solutions that once felt cutting-edge – but all those years of experience meant little the moment I stopped learning. I had let my industry move on without me. I had become outdated. Obsolete. I missed the spark I once had. I missed feeling relevant and having something to offer. A small flame of faith fanned within me: Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe I still had it in me to grow. With a deep, trembling breath, I clicked 'enrol'. FINDING PURPOSE AGAIN Relearning at nearly 50 wasn't easy. I had to set aside my age and industry experience and return to the basics – not just in skills, but in confidence. But I was pleased to discover that SIT's eight-month course was structured thoughtfully to help all kinds of learners not just acquire technical knowledge and skills, but also apply them meaningfully. Through hands-on projects in areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, I began seeing how today's digital economy has evolved to create a need for different types of expertise. The teaching staff at SIT were experts but also patient, passionate mentors who believed in every learner's potential. With their encouragement and support, for the first time in years, I felt it was okay to ask questions, stumble and start over. The course didn't just deliver education; it delivered a renewed sense of purpose for me. RESKILLING ISN'T JUST ABOUT ME People often talk about reskilling or upskilling as a journey of personal growth. For me, it was never just personal. Through my years of redundancy, my wife held our household together with quiet strength, taking care of our five children while I was out driving long hours or buried in assignments. When I first enrolled in SIT, my kids – the youngest of whom was just six years old – didn't understand why Dad was suddenly home all the time. But once we explained I was 'back in school', they never failed to ask me at the end of each day: 'Daddy, how was class!' Truth be told, there were many moments where I wanted to quit. Moments where I felt too old, too slow – unsure if I could keep up. But on those doubtful, defeated nights, my wife would gently remind me why I started. We had many honest conversations about expenses, sacrifices, and the kind of example I wanted to set for our children. I knew that I wasn't just rebuilding myself. We were, as a family, rebuilding what our life could look like together. FROM LEARNING TO TEACHING When I started the SIT course, I wasn't sure where it would lead. But over time, I found myself thinking often about my past experiences mentoring younger colleagues as a department head, or hearing passengers' personal stories as a private-hire driver. I began to see that the true value in my reskilling journey was no longer about gaining knowledge. If I was serious about re-entering the tech field, I had to find a new path – one centred on connecting with and investing in people. Upon graduating, I started consulting to regain my footing in an industry that had changed so much. I had to rebuild my confidence in my abilities to both solve problems and work in tandem with others. Soon, though, I realised that it wasn't enough for me to grow. I wanted to help others grow, too. Eventually, I found myself back in the classroom, this time as an educator at a private Institute of Higher Learning. My first day in the job, standing before my first class was a profound moment for me. I used to think of AI and IoT as things that were out of my reach – now I was educating others on them. I had rebuilt myself – now I was helping others do the same. TO FALL IS HUMAN If you're feeling stuck, unsure or afraid right now, I want you to know that it's okay to fall. We all do – that's just life. What matters is what you do after the fall. Saying yes to re-education wasn't easy. It was uncomfortable, humbling and exhausting. But on our hardest days, there's a quiet strength that only comes from knowing someone who loves you is waiting for you at the end. My family's belief in me was strong and steadfast – and that made all the difference. Our true value as human beings is not in our title or pay cheque. We can always learn new ways to grow and contribute. And sometimes, the very thing that knocks you down can become the push you need to stand taller than you ever did before. Yatim Ghani is an adjunct lecturer in IoT and AI, as well as an advocate for mid-career upskilling and digital resilience.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Project host Sarah Harris makes plea for work after show axing - and reveals sad admission: 'Social media killed the TV star'
Sarah Harris made a cheeky plea for more work on Thursday as she appeared on Nova FM 's The Real Story podcast. The Project host, 43, is just days away from being out of a job as the show prepares to air its final show on Friday. But it seems Sarah has taken it all in her stride as she joked with her former Studio 10 co-star Joe Hildebrand about being on the hunt for a new job. As the podcaster introduced her on his show this week, she immediately directed listeners to her LinkedIn and said she would take 'any employment'. 'Hello, I'm Sarah Harris and I'm open to any sort of employment. You can check me out on LinkedIn,' she joked as she opened the interview. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. But the talk soon took a sad turn as then spoke about the '50 people' from behind-the-scenes of The Project who will also lose their jobs. 'More than 50 people have lost their jobs now,' she said. 'I can cop it. I'm old enough and ugly enough to deal with that but the kids who've lost their jobs… 'Lots of people behind the scenes who are about to have babies – who have scrimped and saved and bought their first place.' Sarah also spoke about the 'reckoning' the TV industry is currently suffering through as it competes for audience retention. 'Social media killed the TV star,' she said. Presenters such as Sarah, Waleed Aly and Georgie Tunny are said to have been offered contract extensions to the end of the year, reported While production staff working behind-the-scenes are believed to have received just a couple weeks notice to find a new job. Sarah's future in the industry remains unclear, with recent rumours suggesting Ten may choose to keep her on for the news show replacing The Project. While the media personality has yet to confirm what is next for her, Sarah shared the funny side of her impending unemployment this week. During Wednesday night's show, she shared a hilarious video which saw her starring in her own spoof stand-up comedy special. 'She's gone from sitting down to standing up,' a narrator could be heard saying in the background. 'Yeah, I'm a comedian now,' she announced while standing on a fake stage. She then launched into a routine, showing herself in an all-black ensemble with a microphone in hand. 'When they axed the show, Ten said it wasn't personal,' she continued. 'They said it was just a strategic refresh, which we all know in TV speak means: "We don't know what we're doing, but we're not doing it with you."' She went on: 'People are always asking me for the news... You know what? I've got some news for you. The economy is down. My wine consumption is up.' She finished the segment with: 'I'm an unemployed celebrity, of course the Jungle is coming for me,' referencing reality TV show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Sarah shared the tongue-in-cheek skit to Instagram, which she accompanied with a hilarious caption. 'Turns out live-streaming myself sobbing while eating grated cheese straight out of the bag was too "niche" for #OnlyFans,' she penned. 'So I'm pivoting to comedy. On whatever you're streaming in 2026.'
News.com.au
a day ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Project host Sarah Harris's plea for work after show dumping
The Project's axed co-host Sarah Harris opened up about her uncertain future this week but stopped short of confirming one media report claiming Ten had not sacked her but offered her a role on the program that replaces The Project from Monday. Harris twice dodged the question when close buddy and ex Studio 10 colleague Joe Hildebrand put the question to her on his The Real Story Nova podcast on Thursday. Rather than respond, Harris confirmed this column's exclusive report that more than 50 people lost their jobs when The Project was axed. Dozens more casuals are said to have been impacted. 'More than 50 people have lost their jobs now. I can cop it. I'm old enough and ugly enough to deal with that but the kids who've lost their jobs … Lots of people behind the scenes who are about to have babies – who have scrimped and saved and bought their first place …' she said. Harris opened the interview with the line 'Hello, I'm Sarah Harris and I'm open to any sort of employment. You can check me out on LinkedIn.' She later acknowledged it was a tough time in the TV industry, that a 'reckoning' is occurring, and that 'social media killed the TV star.' Industry sources claim that while dozens of behind-the-scenes production staff were given a couple weeks notice, a number of presenters were offered contract extensions to the end of the year. Harris and co-presenters Waleed Aly and Georgie Tunny are believed to have been offered brief extensions. Tunny, who had been a star in the making on ABC Breakfast before jumping ship in 2021 to Foxtel and subsequently making the move to Ten following Carrie Bickmore's resignation from the Project in 2022, has spent recent days doubling down on promotions for two podcasts she's associated with. Tunny took to Instagram to promote a sporting podcast, Two Good Sports, which she co-hosts with Abbey Gelmi, as well as a second Taylor Swift-inspired podcast, Ready For It. Harris flatly didn't rule out the likelihood a podcast might be in her future. KARL PARTIES AS TODAY TANKS Are executives at Nine hiding Karl Stefanovic's report card from newish CEO Matt Stanton? One has to wonder, given claims this week Stanton has inked a new deal with Today show host Karl Stefanovic. Someone at Nine is surely pulling the wool over Stanton's eyes, for when last we checked – on Thursday – the Today show's rating were plummeting and for the past three years had achieved record figures. To put this in the plainest terms, here's a graph which shows Today has been cascading downwards since the departure of Lisa Wilkinson in 2017. Back in 2017, in the two-month period of May and June, Today reached an average of 445,043 viewers nationally. In the five capital cities that figure was 294,255. In 2025, for the same two-month period, Today reached 267,422 viewers nationally and 177,621 in the five capital cities. That represents a decline of 60 per cent over nine years and, without exception, Today's consistent loss to the stronger Sunrise on Seven. Nine years of losses to Seven in the breakfast TV slot. And if you look back further, one finds that with Stefanovic at the helm Today has lost convincingly every year to Seven's Sunrise since he was moved into the anchor's chair (undoubtably after charming one of the blokes in the top job at Nine) in 2005. There was only momentary blip is that devastating record. That was in the opening months of 2016 when Today, with Wilkinson seated next to Stefanovic, topped Sunrise. After that, his marriage unravelled along with the gains the duo had started to make on Seven after a decade. Yet Wilkinson, one of the most eloquent and best researched commercial TV breakfast anchors the nation has known, would be shown the door in 2017 following a pay parity dispute with management. Stefanovic would survive for another (almost) decade. Surely it proves nothing's fair in love and war and television ladies, nothing. And maybe less than nothing if reports prove true that for his two decades of successive ratings failures, Stefanovic has been handed a $200k payrise taking his salary to more than three times that of his female co-anchor, Sarah Abo. Stefanovic may be able to fool his blokey bosses at Nine (firstly David Gyngell, then Eddie McGuire, then Gyngell again, the Hugh Marks, then Mike Sneesby, then Stanton), but as the ratings amply prove, you can't fool an audience. That's who should and will always determine the net worth of a performer. It should he said that in this year's May/June period, Today has achieved figures lowever even than it did in 2019 – the year declared a disaster by Nine bosses following the installation of two women, sterling newsreaders Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight, at the program's helm. An experiment deemed a failure at Nine and killed off after a year. BIVIANO NEXT BIG MOVE? In the midst of the emotional turmoil and high drama that engulfed – and for a while threatened to capsize – the latest series of Real Housewives of Sydney, came a whisper Terry Biviano had struck upon an idea. Sources close to the Real Housewives of Sydney (RHOS) production have told this column that as Rome was burning around Biviano on the set of the reality show the one-time 'It' girl Biviano was hatching a plan to pitch a programming idea to the program's broadcaster, Foxtel. The concept, or so we heard, would see the Sydney WAG star in a reality show alongside some of her 'friends'. By 'friends' our insiders believed Biviano meant members of the Housewives' cast with whom she's still on speaking terms. When last we checked, that extended to two members of the cast, vet Kate Adams and reinvented wellness spruiker Sally Obermeder. Not so much Krissy Marsh, Nicole Gazal-O'Neil and fashion retailer Victoria Montano, with whom Biviano reportedly had a public spat at an eastern suburbs party earlier this year. We're unable to confirm the current status of Biviano's relationship with the feisty Caroline Gaultier and the one with the parasol. We note Biviano has already road-tested the title Real Girlfriends of Sydney to her 70k Instagram followers. This tag accompanied a post showing the one-time shoe designer lunching with Sydney pals including fashion designer Rebecca Vallance. The wife of retired NRL player Anthony Minichiello seemed surprised by the talk when Sharpshooting reached out to her for comment this week. 'News to me,' she said via text from a mystery 'family holiday' location, just days after a regular reader spied her taking a turn around an airport in Copenhagen. A Foxtel spokesman declined to be drawn on any discussions the broadcaster may have had with Biviano. So maybe it is just talk. In the unlikely event such a concept might appeal to Foxtel's soon-to-be-hired new head of content, not to mention the honchos at production partner Matchbox who, so we hear, are still assessing the cost of the toxic cast feud that almost sank the final episodes of RHOS season three, there could be an issue finding a suitable location. When last we checked, Biviano's still-under-construction house in Vaucluse was, well, still under construction. That was March, some 11 years after the owners acquired and started designing their dream pile in 2014. We're awaiting word on whether the exclusive suburb's most detested front yard fixture, a green port-a-loo on the Biviano/Minichiello site, might finally have been cleared away so the couple can at last take up residence and get on with the task of dreaming up schemes to pay it off. JOINING FORCES The name of departed ABC executive Chris Oliver-Taylor was on everyone's lips this week as the court's verdict on Antoinette Lattouf was finally handed down. The man the court found to be chiefly responsible for casual presenter Lattouf's sacking was no where to be seen on Wednesday however, having departed the ABC in February to take up a job as global director of digital content monetisation platform Totem Global. Oliver-Taylor has landed on his feet in a role that will include international business development and company expansion. It's not clear meanwhile where Lattouf had landed although we were interested to learn this week that she's signed to an influencer stable. Stage Addiction, a company we'd not heard of until this week, is promoting the self-described 'human Headline Hottie' with the inducement 'Get your people to call my people etc'. Also in the stable is Abbie Chatfield, Jess Eva and a bunch of dudes we wouldn't recognise from Adam. Meanwhile Lattouf has joined Lebanese-Australian journalist and sometime ABC contributor Jan Fran in a new media enterprise called Ette which is derived from the women's names, Antoinette and JEANETTE. TAJER TATTLE Seven Media's chief commercial officer, Henry Tajer, is due to wind up his role today after just six months in the chair. According to well-placed sources Tajer has set his sights on winning the top job at ad company ooh! media. In April that company announced that CEO Cath O'Connor was stepping down after O'Connor and the ooh! media board decided it was the right time for a leadership transition. That followed a static year in revenue at the company to February. This column was unable to reach Tajer for comment yesterday. Sources claim Tajer had long lusted after the top job of Seven CEO Jeff Howard, something that may have contributed to his quickie departure. From radio comes chatter that former Nine sales boss Michael Stephenson would be a good fit for Tajer's soon-to-be vacant role. Stephenson left Nine last year to move the radio company ARN as chief operating officer. Many believe the role, as chief wrangler for a company that has tied its success to the Kyle & Jackie O show, is an ill-fit for the longtime TV executive.
