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Artificial intelligence will affect about 60% of all jobs in the US — and worsen income and wealth inequality, the International Monetary Fund warned.

Advanced economies such as the US are at the greatest risk due to the prevalence of cognitive task-oriented jobs, the IMF said, cautioning that the disruptive technology could replace more than half the jobs available in regions that also include Canada, the UK, Japan, Germany, France and Italy.

Comparatively, AI exposure was estimated to impact 40% of jobs in emerging economies and 26% of positions in low-income countries.

“Automation…had the strongest effect on middle-skilled workers, [but] AI displacement risks extend to higher-wage earners,” the new analysis said.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva wrote in a blog post following the release of Sunday’s report that the rapidly-advancing technology provides opportunities to “help less experienced workers enhance their productivity more quickly.”

However, as AI is brought into the workplace, “we may see polarization within income brackets, with workers who can harness AI seeing an increase in their productivity and wages — and those who cannot falling behind,” Georgieva said.

Older workers are most at risk of losing their place to AI as they “may struggle with reemployment, adapting to technology, mobility and training for new job skills.”

In contrast, “younger workers who are adaptable and familiar with new technologies may also be better able to leverage the new opportunities.”

Georgieva called the findings “a troubling trend” that she urged policymakers to “proactively address to prevent the technology from further stoking social tensions.”

The IMF report was released as the world’s business and political leaders flew Monday to the Swiss resort town of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum.

AI is expected to be the hot topic, as The Post reported, at this year’s confab, which runs through Friday with the theme of “Rebuilding Trust.”

Global executives are increasingly worried about the long term viability of their businesses, a PricewaterhouseCoopers pre-Davos survey released Monday showed, with pressures mounting from generative artificial intelligence and climate disruption.

Some 45% of more than 4,700 global CEOs surveyed do not believe their businesses will survive, barring significant changes, in the next 10 years, the “Big Four” auditor said.

“There’s the 55% who think they don’t have to change radically, and I would argue that’s a little naive because the world is changing so fast around them,” PwC Global Chairman Bob Moritz told the Reuters Global Markets Forum ahead of the meetings.

Advancements in generative AI were top of the concerns for most survey respondents, with almost 75% predicting it would significantly change their business in the next three years.

The US continues to weigh federal regulation of the burgeoning technology after a much-hyped summit in Washington, DC, last September. TheEuropean Union, meanwhile,reached a tentative dealin December thatdrew up some guardrails.

Last April, Goldman Sachs warned generative AI — which is trained on different sets of data to learn pattern recognition — could impact as many as 300 million full-time jobs globally.

A month later, AI was blamed for nearly 4,000 Americans losing their jobs, according to the analytics firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, which cited market and economic conditions as well as mergers and acquisitions as key factors.

On the positive side, Goldman Sachs said that generative AI — which is seen in OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Copilot — could boost GDP by as much as 7% thanks to an increase in productivity.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also touted AI’s “tremendous” impact on the world in an interview with Fox Business last week, calling the technology “crucial.”

“It’s going to change a tremendous amount of stuff in health care alone. It may come up with new compounds. It could do a better job diagnosing diseases, preventing diseases,” Dimon told Fox.

“God knows what it’s going to do for people. It may have some downsides. It’s very hard to figure out how you should regulate it, but it might eventually have to be some regulations around it,” he added.

One of the latest breakthroughs in AI has seen the medical industry rolling out “the world’s first AI doctor’s office,” which is slated to open this year in New York and other major US metros.

Called CarePod, the doctor’s office is actually a self-service cube where patients can be screened for issues relevant to diabetes, hypertension, and depression and anxiety, according to its maker, Forward.

The high-tech health stops will reportedly be installed in malls, gyms and offices for members who pay its $99-per-month fee.

With Post wires

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Alibaba posts profit beat as China looks to prop up tepid consumer spend

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Alibaba posts profit beat as China looks to prop up tepid consumer spend

Alibaba Offices In Beijing

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba on Friday beat profit expectations in its September quarter, but sales fell short as sluggishness in the world’s second-largest economy hit consumer spending.

Alibaba said net income rose 58% year on year to 43.9 billion yuan ($6.07 billion) in the company’s quarter ended Sept. 30, on the back of the performance of its equity investments. This compares with an LSEG forecast of 25.83 billion yuan.

“The year-over-year increases were primarily attributable to the mark-to-market changes from our equity investments, decrease in impairment of our investments and increase in income from operations,” the company said of the annual profit jump in its earnings statement.

Revenue, meanwhile, came in at 236.5 billion yuan, 5% higher year on year but below an analyst forecast of 238.9 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.

The company’s New York-listed shares have gained ground this year to date, up more than 13%. The stock fell more than 2% in morning trading on Friday, after the release of the quarterly earnings.

Sales sentiment

Investors are closely watching the performance of Alibaba’s main business units, Taobao and Tmall Group, which reported a 1% annual uptick in revenue to 98.99 billion yuan in the September quarter.

The results come at a tricky time for Chinese commerce businesses, given a tepid retail environment in the country. Chinese e-commerce group JD.com also missed revenue expectations on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Markets are now watching whether a slew of recent stimulus measures from Beijing, including a five-year 1.4 trillion yuan package announced last week, will help resuscitate the country’s growth and curtail a long-lived real estate market slump.

The impact on the retail space looks promising so far, with sales rising by a better-than-expected 4.8% year on year in October, while China’s recent Singles’ Day shopping holiday — widely seen as a barometer for national consumer sentiment — regained some of its luster.

Alibaba touted “robust growth” in gross merchandise volume — an industry measure of sales over time that does not equate to the company’s revenue — for its Taobao and Tmall Group businesses during the festival, along with a “record number of active buyers.”

“Alibaba’s outlook remains closely aligned with the trajectory of the Chinese economy and evolving regulatory policies,” ING analysts said Thursday, noting that the company’s Friday report will shed light on the Chinese economy’s growth momentum.

The e-commerce giant’s overseas online shopping businesses, such as Lazada and Aliexpress, meanwhile posted a 29% year-on-year hike in sales to 31.67 billion yuan.  

Cloud business accelerates

Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group reported year-on-year sales growth of 7% to 29.6 billion yuan in the September quarter, compared with a 6% annual hike in the three-month period ended in June. The slight acceleration comes amid ongoing efforts by the company to leverage its cloud infrastructure and reposition itself as a leader in the booming artificial intelligence space.

“Growth in our Cloud business accelerated from prior quarters, with revenues from public cloud products growing in double digits and AI-related product revenue delivering triple-digit growth. We are more confident in our core businesses than ever and will continue to invest in supporting long-term growth,” Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said in a statement Friday.

Stymied by Beijing’s sweeping 2022 crackdown on large internet and tech companies, Alibaba last year overhauled the division’s leadership and has been shaping it as a future growth driver, stepping up competition with rivals including Baidu and Huawei domestically, and Microsoft and OpenAI in the U.S.

Alibaba, which rolled out its own ChatGPT-style product Tongyi Qianwen last year, this week unveiled its own AI-powered search tool for small businesses in Europe and the Americas, and clinched a key five-year partnership to supply cloud services to Indonesian tech giant GoTo in September.

Speaking at the Apsara Conference in September, Alibaba’s Wu said the company’s cloud unit is investing “with unprecedented intensity, in the research and development of AI technology and the building of its global infrastructure,” noting that the future of AI is “only beginning.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group reported quarterly revenue of 29.6 billion yuan in the September quarter.

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Elon Musk’s xAI raising up to $6 billion to purchase 100,000 Nvidia chips for Memphis data center

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Elon Musk's xAI raising up to  billion to purchase 100,000 Nvidia chips for Memphis data center

Elon Musk listens as US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. 

Allison Robbert | Getty Images

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is raising up to $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation, according to CNBC’s David Faber.

Sources told Faber that the funding, which should close early next week, is a combination of $5 billion expected from sovereign funds in the Middle East and $1 billion from other investors, some of whom may want to re-up their investments.

The money will be used to acquire 100,000 Nvidia chips, per sources familiar with the situation. Tesla‘s Full Self Driving is expected to rely on the new Memphis supercomputer.

Musk’s AI startup, which he announced in July 2023, seeks to “understand the true nature of the universe,” according to its website. Last November, X.AI released a chatbot called Grok, which the company said was modeled after “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The chatbot debuted with two months of training and had real-time knowledge of the internet, the company claimed at the time.

With Grok, X.AI aims to directly compete with companies including ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which Musk helped start before a conflict with co-founder Sam Altman led him to depart the project in 2018. It will also be vying with Google’s Bard technology and Anthropic’s Claude chatbot.

Now that Donald Trump is President-elect, Elon Musk is beginning to actively work with the new administration on its approach to AI and tech more broadly, as part of Trump’s inner circle in recent weeks.

Trump plans to repeal President Biden’s executive order on AI, according to his campaign platform, stating that it “hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology” and that “in its place, Republicans support AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”

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Baidu- and Geely-backed JiYue brand unveils ROBO X EV that goes 0-100 km/h in under 1.9 sec

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Baidu- and Geely-backed JiYue brand unveils ROBO X EV that goes 0-100 km/h in under 1.9 sec

JiYue, a Chinese EV brand focused on delivering all-electric “robocars” to the masses, has unveiled its latest model, and it’s quite a deviation from its previous EVs—but in the best way. Earlier today, JiYue launched the ROBO X supercar, designed for high-speed racing. By high speed, we mean 0-100 km/h acceleration in under 1.9 seconds. My mouth is watering.

JiYue has only existed since 2021, when parent tech company Baidu announced it was expanding from software development into physical EV production, joining forces with multinational automotive manufacturer Geely.

The new “robotic EV” marque initially launched as JIDU with $300 million in startup capital before garnering an additional $400 million in Series A funding, led by Baidu, in January 2022.

In August 2023, Geely took on a larger role in JIDU alongside a greater financial stake as the brand reimagined itself as JiYue, inheriting the JIDU logo and its flagship model, the 01 ROBOCAR.

In December 2023, Baidu and Geely unveiled a second model called the JiYue 07. It was born from JIDU’s ROBO-02 concept, which debuted in 2023 and was designed to compete against the Tesla Model 3 in China.

The 07 finally launched in China earlier this year with 545 miles of range. With an all-electric SUV and sedan on the market, JiYue has unveiled an exciting new entry in the form of a performance supercar called the ROBO X. Check it out:

JiYue’s new ROBO X EV is available for pre-order now

JiYue showcased its new ROBO X hypercar in front of the crowd at the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show earlier today. Similar to previous models but with a unique spin, JiYue described the ROBO X as an AI smart-driving supercar that, for the first time, blends artificial intelligence and autonomous driving into a high-performance, race-ready EV.

When we say “high performance,” we mean a quad motor liquid-cooled drive system that can propel the ROBO X from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in under 1.9 seconds. JiYue called the new ROBO X a “performance beast” with “the perfect balance of excellent aerodynamic performance and high downforce.” JiYue CEO Joe Xia was even bolder in his statements about the ROBO X:

For the next 20 years, the design of supercars will bear the shadow of Robo X. This is the best design in the history of Chinese automobiles today, and it is a landmark presence.

Fighter-style airflow ducts bolster the EV’s aerodynamics, efficiency, and overall posture. Per JiYue, the two-seater ROBO X is expected to deliver a maximum range of over 650 km (404 miles).

The new supercar features falcon-wing doors, a carbon fiber integrated frame, and a professional racing HALO safety system offering 360° of support. The interior features an AI smart cockpit with SIMO real-time feedback to give drivers an immersive racing experience.

Furthermore, JiYue said the vehicle will utilize parent company Baidu’s Apollo self-driving technology, which could make it the first electric supercar to apply pure-vision ADAS technology that enables track-level autonomous driving.

Following today’s unveiling of the ROBO X, JiYue has officially opened up pre-orders in China for RMB 49,999 ($6,915). That said, reservation holders will need to be patient as JiYue shared that it doesn’t expect to begin mass production of the ROBO X until 2027.

What do you think? Will people be talking about the ROBO X for the next 20 years?

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