Adam Neumann’s bid to buy back WeWork essentially ended this week. A bankruptcy court on Monday approved a deal that gets WeWork out of debt. It could conclude its restructuring and leave bankruptcy by late May following a vote on the deal, thanks to $450 million in financing provided largely …
Read More »Can’t Afford a House? Buy a Piece of One Instead
Nancy Chockley’s $12 million home sits next to a ski slope in Vail, Colorado. It has a chef’s kitchen with sleek appliances, a family room with a modern fireplace, a balcony with mountain views, and four bedrooms that sleep up to 12 guests. But when Chockley packs up to return …
Read More »No One Actually Knows How AI Will Affect Jobs
Forget artificial intelligence breaking free of human control and taking over the world. A far more pressing concern is how today’s generative AI tools will transform the labor market. Some experts envisage a world of increased productivity and job satisfaction; others, a landscape of mass unemployment and social upheaval. Someone …
Read More »Help, My Friend Got Me a Dumb AI-Generated Present
“An artist friend of mine got me an AI-generated painting as a gift. I can see she tried to personalize the concept, and it’s nicely framed, but part of me still feels a little cheated. Is that fair?” —No Returns Dear No Returns, There’s something implicitly paradoxical about feeling “cheated” …
Read More »The Game Theory of the Auto Strikes
The United Auto Workers strike against Detroit’s Big Three—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—escalated into its third week on Friday. Workers at two additional plants operated by Ford and GM walked off the job, taking the number of union members striking for better pay and benefits to more than 25,000. The …
Read More »High Blood Pressure Is the World’s Biggest Killer. Now There’s a Plan to Tackle It
The World Health Organization (WHO) is taking on the world’s worst killer, laying out its first plan to conquer hypertension—a level of high blood pressure that affects one in every three adults globally. That figure has doubled since 1990. It’s now up to 1.3 billion people. High blood pressure might …
Read More »The Auto Strike Threatens a Supply Chain Already Weakened by Covid
In addition to making everyone an epidemiologist, the Covid-19 pandemic schooled the public on the world-spanning network of manufacturers, assemblers, and shippers behind just about every consumer good that arrives on your doorstep. Or driveway. Car prices soared as automakers struggled with a supply chain jammed up by worker shortages, …
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