Category: Business

Businesses looking to hire artificial intelligence (AI) specialists knowledgeable in the use of OpenAI technologies will be able to use a newly created partnership between OpenAI and Upwork to find workers.

OpenAI, which released ChatGPT last year and has a partnership with Microsoft, is partnering with Upwork – a firm that connects independent freelancers and professionals with businesses looking to hire them – on a new initiative called OpenAI Experts on Upwork that was announced Monday.

The program was co-designed by the companies to feature workers who have shown proficiency in working with OpenAI’s API platform in addition to the 250 unique AI skills that Upwork features on its platform, such as GPT-4, OpenAI Codex and AI model integration.

The two companies see the partnership as a means of helping companies find talent who can work on many of the common projects for which OpenAI customers are hiring – such as building apps powered by large language models (LLMs), fine-tuning models and developing chatbots while ensuring AI is used responsibly. Clients can use the platform to talk to experts through one-on-one consultations or hire them through project-based contracts.

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“Partnering with a pioneer like OpenAI helps us deliver access to the specialized talent that businesses need to achieve their most ambitious AI initiatives,” said Dave Bottoms, general manager and VP of product for Upwork Marketplace. “We are thrilled to offer talented professionals on Upwork even more impactful opportunities, and look forward to connecting OpenAI customers with highly skilled talent through OpenAI Experts on Upwork. Through strategic partnerships like this one, we aim to make Upwork the preeminent destination for AI-related talent and work.”

“Our aim is for our models to be useful and beneficial for everyone, and we are committed to helping people understand how our technology can impact critical work,” added Aliisa Rosenthal, head of sales at OpenAI. “Providing customers with access to a trusted source of highly skilled global talent like Upwork can help ensure AI models are deployed and managed responsibly.”

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

Upwork’s partnership with OpenAI comes as the company has seen a surge in interest from companies looking to hire workers experienced in working with generative AI. In announcing the OpenAI partnership, Upwork reported “over 450% growth in weekly generative AI job posts vs. last year.”

As part of the OpenAI Experts on Upwork initiative, the two companies devised a pre-vetting process to identify AI experts who appear as part of the program to ensure that the independent professionals who are featured have the AI skills that companies need.

WHAT IS CHATGPT?

“Organizations ranging from small start-ups to some of the world’s largest enterprises are turning to independent experts to create new solutions and expand their businesses,” said Boris Spiegl, an independent AI and machine learning expert who is participating in OpenAI Experts on Upwork. “Having delivered millions of dollars in value on projects over the course of my career, I’m greatly looking forward to the next big challenges in partnering with OpenAI customers to deliver even more ROI through application of these exciting new technologies.”

The partnership program with OpenAI is part of Upwork’s broader AI Services hub, which serves as a platform for independent professionals working with AI to connect with companies.

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Upwork also recently announced beta features that use OpenAI technologies in what the company calls a “more generative AI-infused end-to-end customer experience on its platform, including an AI-powered job post generator, an enhanced Upwork chat experience and proposal tips for talent.”

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Billionaire Elon Musk says Twitter – the social media company he is in the midst of rebranding as "X" – will keep its headquarters in...

After nearly 100 years in operation, U.S. trucking giant Yellow Corp is shutting down operations. 

The company sent notices to customers and employers, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. 

The end of the road comes after the company earlier this month averted a strike by some 22,000 Teamsters-represented workers, saying the company will pay the more than $50 million it owed in worker benefits and pension accruals. 

Then on Thursday, the company said it was exploring opportunities to divest its third-party logistics company Yellow Logistics Inc, and was engaged with multiple interested parties. 

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Formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., Yellow was one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers with some 30,000 employees across the country.

The shutdown comes after more than a decade of financial struggles and seeing customers leave in droves. 

FreightWaves reported last week that employees were told to expect the filing Monday. Yellow laid off an unknown number of employees Friday, the outlet later reported, citing a memo that stated the company was “shutting down its regular operations.”

According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022. Last, that number was down to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments.

As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion. Of that, $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.

In 2020, under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds. Last month, a congressional probe concluded that the Treasury and Defense Departments “made missteps” in this decision — and noted that Yellow’s “precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss.”

The government loan is due in September 2024. As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.

Meanwhile, a series of heated exchanges had been building up between the Teamsters and Yellow, who sued the union in June after alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans needed for the company’s survival. 

The Teamsters called the litigation “baseless” – with general president Sean O’Brien pointing to Yellow’s “decades of gross mismanagement,” which included exhausting the $700 million federal loan. 

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FOX Business has reached out to representatives for Yellow and the Teamsters for comment. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

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One of the most viral catchphrases regarding the American workforce in recent times has been the term “quiet quitting” — a reference to employees doing the bare minimum at work in response to burnout and their personal quest for a better work-life career balance. 

American businesses have taken steps to retain top talent and promote productivity among employees. 

One such step: Finding ways to help engage employees to reach their peak performance at work.

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A recent 2022 study suggested that workers who embrace a sense of curiosity may be happier and more engaged and productive at work — and that being curious on the job is significantly connected to better work performance. 

Experts weighed in on how a sense of curiosity can impact work performance and job satisfaction.

“Curiosity can improve individual performance as well as the performance of the entire company,” said Amy Morin, a psychotherapist in Marathon, Florida, and author of the book “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.”

When employees are curious, they’ll question why their company does things a certain way — or they’ll want to know what might happen if they took a different approach, said Morin.

“Curiosity can lead to more creative solutions and it can help companies become more innovative,” Morin told FOX Business. 

Workers who are encouraged to be curious may become more engaged with their work, said Morin.

WHY ‘LOUD QUITTING’ IS NOT RECOMMENDED BY JOB EXPERTS (HINT: GRACE AND DIGNITY ARE FAR BETTER)

“They may enjoy thinking about alternative ways to solve problems and strategies for adapting to change,” she said. 

“They may also want to know how certain things work and may find meaning in looking for alternative options.” 

A corporate culture that encourages motivation and creativity at the management level will most often trickle down. 

“Managers can set an example, too, by also asking more questions,” said Lauren Henkin, founder and CEO of The Humane Space based in Rockland, Maine. 

It built an app that “helps adults find awe in the everyday through lifelong learning, curiosity and introspection,” its website notes.

If an employee presents a new idea, Henkin said she tries to respond with a series of questions.

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“Often, my natural inclination is to offer an opinion or an answer to the question posed,” said Henkin. 

“But by asking questions instead, employees are encouraged to find a resolution themselves,” she noted.

WHY ‘LOUD QUITTING’ IS NOT RECOMMENDED BY JOB EXPERTS (HINT: GRACE AND DIGNITY ARE FAR BETTER)

“It gives them an opportunity to grow while feeling valued in the process — and sets the example that asking questions is a valuable part of our culture,” she also said. 

“If we thwart the ability of employees to be inquisitive, we’re actually suppressing their most fundamental expression of curiosity.”

Engagement is key for not only to preventing “quiet quitting” in the workplace but also to preventing actual quitting, said Henkin.

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“When we think about curiosity and engagement, the connection seems pretty clear,” Henkin continued.

“Curiosity prompts engagement. The more curious we are, the more questions we ask, the more we participate in finding solutions,” she said. 

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“And the more interested we are in opportunities for growth,” she also said. 

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The odds of the U.S. avoiding a deep recession and achieving a “soft landing” are rising as the Federal Reserve tries to bring down inflation, but the economy isn’t out of the woods yet according to a key figure at the central bank.

Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday and told host Margaret Brennan that he agrees with Fed economists who increasingly view the U.S. economy as likely to end this inflation cycle without a significant hit to the labor market. 

“That’s our base case scenario, the economy continues to surprise how resilient it is, that’s a really good thing, as your reporting just showed the unemployment rate is still very low of 3.6%” Kashkari said. 

“Nonetheless, I’m not going to dismiss the hardship that Americans are feeling. High inflation for several years has really put a dent in people’s pocketbooks. We’re now starting to dig our way out of that,” he explained. “So, we’re making progress. But I’m also not surprised that people are still frustrated by how long it has taken to get here.”

FED HIKES INTEREST RATES TO 22-YEAR HIGH AS INFLATION FIGHT RESUMES

Kashkari is one of the 12 Fed officials who serve as voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which makes decisions about the central bank’s monetary policies that influence interest rates, which in turn have an impact on the rates paid by credit card and mortgage borrowers. 

When asked whether the Fed plans to raise interest rates one more time in 2023 given that inflation slowed to 3% on an annual basis in June – down from a 40-year high of 9.1% inflation the U.S. faced last year but still above the Fed’s 2% target – Kashkari said policymakers will weigh the data before making a decision.

ECONOMISTS STILL SEE 50% CHANCE OF A RECESSION THIS YEAR

“We need to get inflation all the way back down to 2%. And while that headline number that your reporter just shared, 3%, is really positive news, that headline number tends to move around a lot, as oil prices and gas prices and food prices fluctuate the underlying number. The core numbers more around 4.1%, that’s down from around 5.5% a year ago,” Kashkari noted.

“So we’re making good progress, but it’s still double our 2% rate, and so we don’t want to declare victory,” he added. “If we need to hike – raise rates further from here, we will do so. But we’re gonna let the data guide us and not prejudge the outcome.”

INFLATION ROSE JUST 3% IN JUNE AS PRICE PRESSURES CONTINUE TO COOL

Kashkari went on to say that although he thinks there will be some job losses coming to the U.S. economy as interest rates remain elevated, he believes it will be possible to have modest increases in the unemployment rate and still manage to pull off a “soft landing” that avoids a deep recession. 

“I personally don’t think that’s realistic, that we’re going to end this inflation cycle with no cost to the labor market. It would not surprise me to see the unemployment rate tick up from 3.6 to 3.7, 3.8, maybe even 4%. That in my book – that would still be a soft landing,” he said. “We definitely want to avoid a deep recession where you have hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs month after month, the kind of painful recession that we have seen in the past. If we can achieve 2% inflation with only a modest softening in the labor market, I think that would be a resounding positive outcome for the country as a whole.”

Last week, the Fed announced another hike to the benchmark federal funds rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% which will take interest rates to their highest level in 22 years. It was the Fed’s 11th rate hike since March 2022 when the central bank began its campaign of restrictive monetary policy aimed at tamping down inflation. 

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Economic projections released following the central bank’s meeting in June show that a majority of Fed officials expect interest rates to reach 5.6% by the end of 2023, which suggests that at least one more quarter-point increase will occur this year.

The Fed is expected to meet three more times this year with meetings scheduled in September, November and December.

FOX Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.

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It seems “Barbie” isn’t backing down at the box office anytime soon.

The movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, held strong in the number one spot at the box office for the second week in a row, earning $93 million.

Any predictions that enthusiasm for the film would fade after opening weekend were dispelled with only a 43% drop off in ticket sales from its first week.

“Barbie” also had, according to Variety, the seventh-biggest second weekend in history, after other franchise giants, including “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($147 million) and “Infinity War” ($114 million), “Black Panther” ($111 million), “Jurassic World” ($106 million) and “The Avengers” ($103 million).

MATTEL’S BARBIE EARNS OVER A BILLION EVERY YEAR

“Oppenheimer” also continued to pull in audiences, earning $46.2 million over the weekend.

According to Variety, Universal claims “Oppenheimer” is the first R-rated film to gross more than $10 million for seven days in a row on Friday, a streak that continued on to 10 days through the weekend.

Overall, “Barbie” is on track to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide, with $774.5 million so far, only the second film this year to do so (the other is “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which earned $1.34 billion).

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The power of Barbenheimer was no match for Disney’s “The Haunted Mansion,” which opened in third place with only $24.2 million

Angel Studios’ sleeper hit “Sound of Freedom” held onto fourth place, with $12.4 million, adding to an overall total of $149 million.

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Rounding out the top five was Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” taking in $10.7 million. 

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Billionaire Elon Musk says Twitter – the social media company he is in the midst of rebranding as “X” – will keep its headquarters in San Francisco despite the “doom loop” the city is facing as big-name businesses head for the exits.

Musk, who led a group of investors in acquiring Twitter that took the company private in a $44 billion deal last year, tweeted Saturday the company’s headquarters will remain in San Francisco despite receiving offers aimed at enticing the company to relocate.

“Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco. Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too. We will not,” Musk explained.

“You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend,” Musk’s tweet concluded.

SAN FRANCISCO, NEW YORK FACE ‘URBAN DOOM LOOP’

San Francisco’s economy has suffered from an exodus of businesses and residents in the last few years, creating a “doom loop” in which a local government enters a downward fiscal spiral as its tax base declines.

An urban doom loop involves a decline in workers present in offices in city centers, which results in businesses shrinking their office footprint and rental overhead. The decline in demand causes real estate prices to fall, which in turn reduces property tax revenue while other sources of tax revenue, like sales tax, also take a hit due to the reduced traffic in downtown areas.

As the overall tax base declines, it becomes harder for city governments to fund public services like law enforcement as they’re forced to make trade-offs involving budget cuts or tax hikes to stabilize their finances – both of which can drive more businesses and residents to depart if those policies have a negative effect on the economic climate or overall quality of life.

AT&T, WESTFIELD MALL, NORDSTROM LEAD SAN FRANCISCO DOWNTOWN EXODUS

The growing popularity of remote work has accelerated that trend, decreasing the number of workers heading to the office on a daily basis as it becomes easier than ever for workers to live in suburban and rural areas without commuting.

The tech-heavy economy of San Francisco and criticisms of the city government’s record on public safety issues have made it a case study in the dynamics driving urban doom loops. According to data from the Census Bureau, the population of San Francisco County declined by 7.5% from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2022.

‘X’ LOGO INSTALLED ON TWITTER BUILDING PROMPTS PERMIT COMPLAINT FROM SAN FRANCISCO

Commercial real estate firm CBRE released data in early July which showed that San Francisco had an overall office vacancy rate of 31.6% in the second quarter of 2023. The CBRE report noted that in the last quarter, “negative net absorption accelerated due to slow leasing activity, combined with a high volume of lease expirations and several new sublease listings. This resulted in 1.83 million sq. ft. of occupancy loss, which increased the market-wide vacancy rate from 29.4% to 31.6%.”

Although Twitter isn’t relocating its headquarters, the company has sought to shrink its office footprint in San Francisco and faced a lawsuit from its landlord earlier this year over unpaid rent – although the social media company has faced similar suits at offices in Denver, Oakland and London since Musk acquired Twitter and began a broad cost-cutting push to stabilize its finances.

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Amid Twitter’s rebrand to X, city officials filed a complaint and opened an investigation into whether the company had the proper permits to install an illuminated “X” atop its downtown headquarters. Police had stopped the installation last week, but later said there was a “misunderstanding” and that the incident was not a police matter.

City officials say a permit is required to change letters or signs on buildings, or to erect a new sign on top of a building.

FOX Business’ Chris Pandolofo contributed to this report.

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