What a week. I was sick for most of it. I went through the whole cycle of sore throat on Sunday to aches on Monday and Tuesday to lethargy and a raging headache to Wednesday and Thursday to finally feeling better today. But before all that, last Saturday I attended an arts workshop to learn some new watercolor techniques and OMG LOOK WHAT I MADE!
Here are your finds for the week:
- ACs AREN’T HELPING The past week the Earth has been boiling. The planet set the record for hottest day EVER. TWICE in a row! People across the U.S. (and elsewhere) need a lot of electricity to cool their homes during hot weather, intensifying our power demand—and carbon footprint - which leads to this vicious cycle.
- AI INTERVIEWERS Companies are adopting AI job interview systems to handle incoming applicants. LLMs allow the interviewer to incorporate follow-up questions based on the subject’s response. Critics say the opaque models raise serious concerns about bias, particularly where there is no documentation about how a decision is made.
- SMILE TRACKER Japan supermarket chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in quality service push. The system draws on more than 450 elements including facial expressions, voice volume and tone of greetings. A friend of mine made a movie similar to this in 2020 - art leads reality.
- COZZIE LIVS Cost-of-Living crisis hits sales of food, cars and luxury goods. Shoppers are tapped out after years of inflation, higher rates. Whether it’s US grocery shoppers tapped out after a period of punishing inflation or wealthy Chinese customers postponing their next splurge, the effects are rippling across the corporate landscape.
- OVER TOURISM I’m working on a project where I see evidence of this around the globe - when left unchecked, tourism can go from a sustainable revenue source to greed-mongering-plunder of the balance between nature, the local community and their livelihoods. One of Switzerland’s most stunning spots has become the latest to try to limit tourist access, in a bid to protect the environment from becoming overrun by Instagrammers.