AI chips, shared trips, and a shorter work week

Link (click) : AI chips, shared trips, and a shorter work week

AI chips, shared trips, and a shorter work week : The Indicator from Planet Money

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SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC SONG, "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE")

 

ADRIAN MA, HOST: 

This is THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY. I'm Adrian Ma here with Darian Woods.

 

DARIAN WOODS, HOST: 

Hello.

 

MA: And super special guest this week - Sarah Gonzalez from Planet Money.

 

SARAH GONZALEZ, BYLINE: Hey guys.

 

WOODS: Welcome to the show.

 

GONZALEZ: Thank you. Thank you.

 

WOODS: We are here for indicators of the week. We've got a pretty packed lineup with AI stock pickers - seeing what they think of the market. We're looking at the 32-hour workweek, and we're investigating this Airbnb crackdown.

 

+ crackdown : (엄중)단속, (강력)탄압 -> 여기서는 '규제 강화'라는 뜻

 

MA: Coming up after the break.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

 

MA: Indicators of the week - Darian, you're first up. What you got?

 

WOODS: My indicator is triple, which is related to the chipmaker Nvidia, which has been in the spotlight a lot recently. Its share price has more than tripled this year. It's doing very, very well because a lot of AI systems use its chips. Investors were laser-focused on its earnings report this week, which came in even stronger than expected. Its share price shot up even further.

 

+ laser - focus : 초집중 

(ex : She has a laser focus on the battle)  

+ shoot - shot - shot 

 

MA: So are you telling me that it's too late to get on this train?

 

WOODS: We thought it might have been too late this week, but it still went up quite a lot. Whether or not it keeps going higher, I mean, I'm no psychic.

 

+ psychic : 점쟁이

 

GONZALEZ: Take the gamble, Adrian. Take the gamble.

 

MA: (Laughter) Buy high, sell higher, right?

 

WOODS: That's the hope from some people. But what we're seeing with Nvidia is really an extreme version of a boost that is across the board for the major AI players, so Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet - aka Google. People have been clamoring to invest in these companies. They're hoping to get a slice of the AI action.

 

+ across the board : (회사, 산업 등의) 전반에 걸쳐

+ clamor [ˈkla-mər] : (군중 등의) 시끄러운 외침, 부르짖음, 아우성, 떠들석함, 외치다, 떠들어대다

 

MA: Who does not want to cozy up to our robot overlords?

 

+ cozy up to : ~ 어떤 사람에게 아첨, 아부하며 그 사람과 더 가까워지기 위해 의도적으로 노력하다.

 

GONZALEZ: I don't.

 

WOODS: But Sarah - and she's a good company, which is the robot overlords themselves. So they're a little bit down on investing in AI. There's these funds out there that use artificial intelligence to find patterns in the stock market, use those patterns to hopefully try to make money. And they haven't been investing in a lot of AI companies.

 

GONZALEZ: AI is saying it is not a good idea to invest in AI companies?

 

WOODS: Yeah. So The Wall Street Journal reported this week that there are at least 13 funds that use AI to make decisions, and they're not investing in AI companies. The vast majority of them, though, have made worse returns than just if you'd invested in the stock market as a whole this year.

 

MA: I guess this does give me a little bit of optimism because, like, if AI was trying to take over, they would be like, you should invest in more AI.

 

GONZALEZ: I see. I like how you're thinking. I like where your brain's at, Adrian (laughter).

 

WOODS: I mean, one AI-powered fund refused to buy Meta shares because it thought it was overvalued. So it's this kind of fear that maybe these big rises aren't sustainable.

 

GONZALEZ: So AI doesn't believe the AI hype.

 

+ hype : 과장 광고, 과대 선전, 허풍, 흥분시키다, exceptionally cool or awesome

 

WOODS: Yeah. It's this beautiful irony, potentially something to give investors pause when they ask whether we're in a true boom or a passing bubble.

 

MA: OK.

 

WOODS: And when the AI fully automates all our work, I guess we're going to be working fewer hours. And it sounds like the path towards fewer hours of work is coming up, Sarah.

 

GONZALEZ: Darian, 

 

WOODS: What's your indicator?

 

GONZALEZ:  

 

MA: Could it be 32-hour workweek and a 40-hour salary?

 

GONZALEZ: Yes. So - OK, a lot of private companies have moved to, like, a four-day workweek or a 32-hour workweek. But this is interesting because this is one of the first times that a government in the United States has made the switch. This feels big to me. It feels like a change is happening. It is a small county. It's made up of a few islands in Washington's San Juan County. It's supposed to be, like, stunningly beautiful. And most of its employees - 70% of the county's employees will now work eight hours less every week. It's going to apply to county road crews, county clerks, park workers, nurses, people who are in charge of, like, environmental issues. Their pay is not going to be docked. Their pay is going to stay exactly the same. They just get to work less hours a week now. It sounds dreamy.

 

+ stunning : 굉장히 아름다운(멋진), 깜짝 놀랄, 전혀 뜻밖의

+ dock : (임금 등에서) ~을 빼다, 공제하다

 

WOODS: I would love to see the results of this. We've seen some studies in favor of working fewer days.

 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. There's a big one out of the United Kingdom that basically showed that cutting hours did not actually hurt productivity, and in some cases, it increased productivity. I will say that I have spoken to a labor economist who's like, I've seen the studies. I know the studies. But, like, come on, of course productivity will drop. You're working one day less. Like, of course it will.

 

WOODS: It does seem too good to be true, surely.

 

GONZALEZ: It seems too good to be true. But actually, productivity was not the impetus for why this county, San Juan County, cut hours. They cut hours because of budget difficulties. So apparently, one of the labor unions was asking for these big pay increases for county workers to keep up with inflation. But the county didn't want to have to raise taxes to afford pay raises for county employees. So in order to keep workers and keep them happy, they cut the workweek.

 

+ impetus : 자극(제), 추진력, 추동력

 

MA: Right. Let me get this straight. So, like, people are working fewer hours, but they're not actually getting the pay raises that they wanted?

 

+ Let me get this straight : 이건 확실히 짚고 넘어가야겠네요.

 

GONZALEZ: Right. Technically, their hourly wage is going to go up - right? - 'cause they get to keep their same pay for less hours. But yeah, at the end of the week, no, they won't actually have more money in their pockets. So if more free time is what you want, then this is great. You know, just, like, go to the doctor's appointments or whatever. But if what you need is more money, I mean, I guess you could, like, get a second job on the side on your new day off. Yeah.

The county does say that they're not going to cut services. Like, county offices will still be open. They're going to, you know, have consistent hours. It's just they're going to adjust them - like maybe slightly less hours every day or close one day a week, things like that. The reduced hours don't apply to the county sheriff's office and management or during cases of emergencies. So I don't know, guys. This seems like the future.

 

+ sheriff : 보안관

 

WOODS: Seems like a definite trend.

 

GONZALEZ: It seems like THE INDICATOR and Planet Money should just, for journalism, move to a four-day workweek, see if it affects our productivity. Like, let's just make this happen.

 

WOODS: And with that extra day, I guess you're going to be taking more vacation times, possibly staying in an Airbnb. Adrian Ma, tell us about yours.

 

GONZALEZ: The king of the transition, Darian.

(LAUGHTER)

 

WOODS: I try my best.

 

MA: Just quick poll - who here has taken a trip and stayed in Airbnb?

 

WOODS: Yes. I am a young professional in the U.S. I have stayed in an Airbnb.

 

+ professional : 형용사도 있고 명사도 있음 (전문적인, 직업의, 전문가의, 전문직 종사자)

 

MA: And when you stay in an Airbnb, do you like - do you prefer to rent out the whole thing for yourself? Or do you like to kind of stay in those Airbnbs where the person's, like, in the other room watching TV or making eggs or something?

 

GONZALEZ: It depends how expensive the city is.

 

WOODS: Yeah. I don't mind staying with people.

 

MA: OK. Well, I tend to prefer the ones where I get to be by myself, but pretty soon, these listings may be pretty hard to come by if you're planning a trip to New York City.

 

+ by myself : (다른 사람 없이) 혼자, (남의 도움 없이) 혼자

+ come by : (누구를 보러) 잠깐 들르다, (힘쓴 끝에) ~을 얻다(구하다)

 

GONZALEZ: Wait, you won't be able to get the whole space to yourself?

 

MA: OK, so in about two weeks, the New York City government is going to start cracking down on listings because of this law that they passed last year which bans short-term rentals, which are less than 30 days long, where the host is not around.

 

WOODS: All right. So sharing your apartment for a couple of nights is OK, but renting out the entire thing is not.

 

MA: Exactly. Of course, this happens all the time on platforms like Airbnb or Vrbo or Booking.com, and the city estimates that 10,800 listings are currently illegal under the rules. So that's my indicator of the week - 10,800. And pretty soon, the people who are caught making these kinds of listings could face fines up to 5,000 bucks.

 

WOODS: That's serious money.

 

+ serious : 만만찮은

 

MA: Yes. And this is obviously not good for the people who are trying to make that money on Airbnb, right? But, you know, the city's rationale for doing this is that New York has an affordable housing crisis. And there's research to suggest that as Airbnbs increase in number, that means fewer units that are available for long-term rental, which can contribute to higher rents. And I don't know, I think it'll be interesting to see. Maybe we'll see some studies in the future that look at what happened when you start taking away Airbnbs.

 

+ affordable : 감당할 수 있는
+ rational : 합리적인, 이성적인 (= reasonable)

+ rationale : 이유, 근거

+ take away : 제거하다, 치우다, 줄이다, 죽이다, 떠나가다

 

GONZALEZ: Maybe more and more people are just going to start hanging out with strangers now.

 

WOODS: Yeah. What's going to happen to the social fabric? We'll start making friends again.

 

+ social fabric : 사회적 구조

 

MA: In the meantime, we would actually like to hear from you, our listeners. If you think you're going to be affected by this ban or a similar ban, you know, if you're a host or a traveler, we want to hear your story. Email us at indicator@npr.org.

 

WOODS: This episode was produced by Brittany Cronin and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was edited by Kate Concannon. THE INDICATOR is a production of NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)