📊 AI at Work: The Stats You Need to Know

In today’s email:

💬 AI chatbots at work—are they your new best friend or just another tech headache? We break down how people are actually using them (or avoiding them).

😷 Can AI predict the next pandemic? Researchers think so, but there are some big hurdles to overcome.

🎵 Silence speaks volumes—over 1,000 musicians dropped an album of pure nothingness to protest AI and music copyright laws.

Curious? Keep reading!

💬 Chatbots at Work: Friend or Foe?

A Pew Research poll of 5,273 U.S. workers found 52% worry about AI in the workplace. Most workers (63%) barely touch AI at work, and 17% are like, “AI who?” Younger, more educated people are in charge, especially in tech and finance. Some think AI could help their jobs, but many aren’t convinced.

What Are People Using AI Chatbots For?
For the brave souls actually using AI at work, they mostly rely on chatbots for:
✔ Researching stuff (57%)
✔ Editing written content (52%)
✔ Writing reports and documents (47%)
Less common uses include summarizing info, brainstorming ideas, coding, and making images.

Are AI Chatbots Actually Helpful?

• 40% of users say chatbots help them work faster.

• 29% say they improve work quality.

• Younger workers (18-49) find them way more useful than older workers.

Why Aren’t More People Using AI Chatbots?

• 36% say they just don’t need them.

• 22% aren’t interested.

• 10% don’t know how to use them.

• 9% say their boss won’t let them.

Speaking of Bosses...

• Half of employers don’t care whether you use AI or not.

• Some tech, finance, and science fields encourage it, but most industries are neutral.

😷 Can AI Save Us From the Next Pandemic?

A new study suggests that AI might just be the superhero we need to predict the next pandemic. AI has gotten super good at modeling infectious disease outbreaks, but it still relies on having a ton of accessible data. Without it, things can get tricky.

Here’s what AI can do:

• Predict how diseases spread, even with limited data.

• Help in diagnosing patients and assisting doctors.

• Model outbreaks and disease spread in ways that save time and resources.

AI is now even tackling genetic data to track virus origins and spread, making it way better at understanding how viruses work. Plus, it’s speeding up research by turning weeks of work into just hours.

But it’s not all smooth sailing. Some AI models can’t always predict beyond what we already know and still don’t explain how diseases spread. And, for AI to really work, we need better data transparency, ethical guidelines for data sharing, and more investment into making these models accessible.

So, while AI isn’t going to replace the scientists, it’s definitely a powerful tool in the pandemic-prep toolkit.

😶 Musicians Drop Silent Album to Protest AI

Over 1,000 musicians, including legends like Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, and Damon Albarn, dropped the quietest album ever. Why? They’re protesting the UK government's plan to let AI companies use copyrighted music without permission unless artists explicitly opt out (which, let’s be honest, sounds like a logistical nightmare).

The album titled Is This What We Want?, is basically an hour of…nothing. Just recordings of silent studios and performance spaces. The message? If AI steals all their work, this could be the future of music—complete silence.

Key takeaways:

• The tracklist states: "The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies."

• The album supports Help Musicians, a charity aiding struggling artists.

• Big names like Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, and even Paul McCartney also rally against these AI-friendly copyright changes.

• The Make It Fair campaign urges fans to write to their MPs and fight for musicians' rights.

Government officials say no final decisions have been made yet. Meanwhile, musicians are basically screaming (silently) to be heard.

Other cool AI stuff that is trending right now 🔥🔥

🐸 Get ready to hop on the FloppyPepe train—this AI-powered meme coin is making waves and could be the crypto game-changer of 2025. - Read more

😖 Ever wish your smartwatch could predict your mood swings? Well, thanks to some brilliant researchers, it just might – with 98% accuracy – help manage mood disorders too! - Read more

📰 The UK’s biggest newspapers are banding together like an Avengers squad, rallying against the government’s plan to let AI companies scrape content for free. - Read more

🎮 Anthropic's latest AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, leveled up its skills by tackling Pokémon Red—proving it can do more than just think. - Read more

👩‍💻 Google just made its AI coding tool free for solo devs, offering 90 times more code completions than GitHub Copilot. - Read more