IBM is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate crowds in the first-ever, spectator-less US Open.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, like many sports, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has had to adapt to the safety measures required to contain the virus. As the USTA’s digital partner for 29 years, IBM set to work recreating the stadium experience using AI.
“Among the challenges the USTA faced this year was how to recreate the sound of fans inside the stadium,” reads the blog post. “IBM leveraged its AI Highlights technology to recreate crowd sounds gleaned from hundreds of hours of video footage captured during last years’ tournament. In past years, AI Highlights used Watson to digest video footage and rank the excitement level of each clip to compile a highlight reel in near-real time and classify specific crowd reactions, including the crowd roar, to give each clip a crowd reaction score. This insight will be used this year to dynamically serve up those sounds based on similar play from last year. The AI Sounds tools will be available to the production teams in-stadium and at ESPN.”
In addition to the stadium experience, IBM is using AI to help fans better connect with the experience. For example, Match Insights with Watson Discovery uses natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation to take statistics and other structured data and translate it into narrative form. This will help fans get up-to-speed and become “experts” on the players and matchups.
“COVID-19 brought disruption to sports as a whole, and the ability of fans to experience live sporting events has been heavily impacted in 2020. At the same time, the pandemic accelerated the need for engaging technologies using AI and underpinned by a scalable hybrid cloud,” said Noah Syken, Vice President of Sports & Entertainment Partnerships, IBM. “As the technology partner to the USTA, we transformed our offerings to meet tennis fans where they are this year – experiencing the sport through the US Open digital properties everywhere.”
“Until we fix this occupancy problem, even though you are open, it is not possible to pay full rent,” says Landry CEO and reality TV host Tilman Fertitta. “How do you pay a mortgage when you only operating at 25 percent or 50 percent? To all of you judges out there, this is a taking by the state and the government when you take 50 percent of my occupancy.”
Tilman Fertitta, Landry’s chairman, and CEO talks about his frustration with the incompetence of the State of New York and the City of New York in dealing with restaurant reopenings:
It’s Unbelievable That New York Won’t Give Us A Metric To Reopen
We love to complain about leadership on a national level and on some state levels but nobody knows what to do. Everybody wants to blame DC right now but we are sitting here in New York and they can’t even give us the metics and say if the pandemic only has this much hospitalization or cases for a 14-day rolling average. Then you can plan on opening your restaurants at 25 or 50 percent. We get absolutely no information at all out of the State of New York and the City of New York. The City of New York is unbelievable that they will not give us a metric when they can open these restaurants.
Just think about it. Everything is a metric and everything is data points. We all want to blame everybody else for the data points and not making decisions. Wouldn’t you look at four or five key data points and say as soon as we hit these data points you are going to open? What is so difficult about that? We hear about the great leadership of New York and up east in New Jersey while we are treating the rest of the country like they’re from other countries that they are quarantining us and they can’t even go visit up there. It’s ridiculous right now. Yet they won’t even give us business and data points to operate. In New Jersey, you still can’t have a drink of water in the casino unless you are dehydrating and you are about to pass out. It’s extremely comical to me.
Lack Of Unions In Regional Casinos Enabling Them To Thrive
All the regional casinos are doing extremely well, take out New Jersey of course. I hate to say this but the reason the regional casinos are doing so much EBITA right now is that number one, people are moving around, they don’t have to fly in, and you don’t have the union wages in the regional casinos. They are also not opening their buffets and all their full service restaurants. You are really able to watch your costs in a regional casino that you can’t in Vegas or in New Jersey where you have the high union wages. It’s tremendously helping us all.
But we are doing 100 percent of the same gaming revenue in the regional casinos where in Vegas you are doing below 50 percent and in Atlantic City, you are doing about 40 percent. Regional is where you want to be right now.
Not Letting Restaurants Open Fully Is a ‘Taking By The State”
The State of Missouri is one of the few states that lets us open 100 percent of the occupancy of our restaurants as long as we keep six-foot distancing, which we 100 percent do and abide by. They’re for it because you are able to open the establishment and can seat your seats and still be careful. That’s why you are running the best same-store sales comps in that particular market right now.
Until we fix this occupancy problem, even though you are open, how do you pay full rent? How do you pay a mortgage when you only operating at 25 percent or 50 percent? To all of you judges out there, this is a taking by the state and the government when you take 50 percent of my occupancy.
Disney Is Not Even Hitting 20% Occupancy Target Right Now
We are down 70 percent in Orlando and we have some of the biggest stores at Disney. They are coming out now and saying it. The traffic is just not there. I give Disney a lot of credit for going out and putting great protocols to protect their guests. They were only going to let 20 percent of the park’s occupancy come in. I don’t think they are even doing 20 percent.
This is a problem all over America right now that you can’t even do the business. I’m not speaking for Disney but I know my restaurants aren’t doing 20 percent down there right now. We usually do a lot more than the parks do when it comes to percentages.
Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta: Not Letting Restaurants Open Fully Is a ‘Taking By The State’
“We’ve partnered with the National Restaurant Association for a restaurant safety app called VirusSAFE Pro,” says Restaurant Impossible host Robert Irvine. “When you say you’ve done something, say you’re cleaning the refrigerator, and you’re actually outside smoking a cigarette, I know because of geotagging that you didn’t clean that when you said you did. It’s really about accountability of duty of care. What we’re trying to do is put back the consumer of customer confidence through transparency.”
Robert Irvine, celebrity chef and host of Restaurant Impossible, discusses the launch of his new app VirusSAFE Pro which helps restaurants and consumers monitor the implementation of safety protocols. Irvine says the key is restoring “consumer confidence” in restaurant dining:
VirusSAFE Pro App Helps Restaurants Stay Healthy
We’ve actually partnered with the National Restaurant Association for a (restaurant safety app) called VirusSAFE Pro. It enables checklist reminders on your phone so that COVID-19 safety protocols are done in a timely manner and all the protocols are completed. You think about standing operating procedures for restaurants especially in the COVID-19 times where we’re looking at masks and gloves and everything that’s clean.
We’ve all been to airports and restaurants where people say that things have been done and they actually haven’t. VirusSAFE Pro is an app for phones that also has a desktop which helps with mitigation. When you say you’ve done something, say you’re cleaning the refrigerator, and you’re actually outside smoking a cigarette, I know because of geotagging that you didn’t clean that when you said you did. It’s really about accountability of duty of care. What we’re trying to do is put back the consumer of customer confidence through transparency. That’s the biggest part. It’s simple. It’s easy to use. It provides verification of stuff done in real-time.
Right Now The Problem Is Consumer Confidence
It’s 99 percent fail-safe as opposed to a pen and a piece of paper. I can actually tell you where you are and what you are doing. This is the only consumer-facing app that when you’re verified and you’re using that system you can put a check and verified sticker in your window. A consumer can then take their smartphone use it on the QR code and find out exactly what’s been done for the last 24 hours or 48 hours of your protocols. That allows a guest who has two kids that are below three years old or an 89-year-old grandmother to feel safe to go back into your restaurant. Right now the problem is consumer confidence.
It’s tracking everything that we’ve done for two years or more. You know what it’s like right now, everybody’s saying I got sick in your restaurant. Now I’ve got this mitigation tool to say we have done our best practices and protocols and our duty of care to make sure you are your safest. There is no system that’s 100 percent clear but this is 99 percent that we can follow what you’ve done, how you’ve done it, and make you want to get back to a restaurant. If you don’t do this and this is a big don’t, we already are at 30 to 40 percent of failure with the restaurants that will not be able to come past this pandemic. That is a huge amount when we’ve got 11 million folks out of work.
Restaurant Impossible Reopen
I’ve just reopened six restaurants in three weeks in four states following COVID-19 closures putting in new practices and protocols to make sure that consumers are safe. You will hear more from me regarding this on my TV show Restaurant Impossible Reopen which you’ll see very soon. It’s really important that we take these protocols seriously.
Robert Irvine: New App Makes It Possible For Restaurants To Reopen Safely
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a stellar quarter for Zillow, as potential homebuyers looked online.
The pandemic has forced many individuals to take a second look at their housing situation. With people spending unprecedented amounts of time at home during lockdown and quarantine orders, many are looking to upgrade their homes with more room and features conducive to telecommuting. Others are looking to take advantage of work from home trends, and move out of expensive neighborhoods or cities to more scenic and affordable locales.
These factors led to a stellar quarter for the company, reporting that revenue grew 28% year over year to $768 million. This was up from industry estimates of $618 million.
“Zillow’s second quarter results are even better than we had hoped, and firm up our belief that powerful tailwinds in both real estate and technology are rapidly converging, with Zillow at the nexus,” said Zillow Group co-founder and CEO Rich Barton. “I believe we are at the dawn of a Great Reshuffling, as COVID and work-from-home policies are inspiring people to rethink their homes and consider moving. In addition, real estate, like other industries, is experiencing an acceleration in technology adoption, as people move their shopping habits from offline to online. We’re lucky to be in a position to serve our customers no matter how they want to move, whether through a seamless Zillow Offers transaction or in partnership with our best-in-class Premier Agents.
“Even more important than the business results is the way our team has responded over the past several months, as we all grapple with fear, loss, protest, and anger through a health crisis and social reckoning. We’ve managed through all of this with a strong commitment that we can and will do more to support our communities and address systemic barriers in real estate.”
Barton’s comments that he believes this is the beginning of a “Great Reshuffling” are significant and should give many industry leaders pause.
“The fact is that COVID has already accelerated everything that was taking place in the marketplace,” says the former co-CEO of Whole Foods, Walter Robb. “Some people say that between 30 and 50 percent of small businesses are going to go out of business. We are going to see disruptions as the COVID turns left or turns right. It’s throwing curveballs at businesses. It’s very difficult to operate in this environment.
Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods, discusses how COVID related business closures and restrictions by urban governors and mayors has accelerated the existing trend of retailers closing due to competition with big rivals that have a sophisticated and expansive presence online such as Amazon and Walmart:
COVID Accelerates Retail Closures
The fact is that COVID has already accelerated everything that was taking place in the marketplace. So I think you will see some more (retail bankruptcies). I saw some numbers from the Yelp folks that suggested there would be 150,000 businesses fold. Some people say that between 30 and 50 percent of small businesses are going to go out. We are going to see disruptions as the COVID turns left or turns right. It’s throwing curveballs at businesses. It’s very difficult to operate in this environment.
The main thing is can we keep the economy open in some safe manner? It isn’t whether it’s an essential business or a non-essential business. It’s whether we can keep it open for both the team members and for the customers. It’s going to really determine some of that. Some folks have already thrown in the towel and some folks are going through bankruptcy.
But there are a lot of folks working hard in retail to serve people. It will depend on whether we going to get some sort of support, both in terms of the main street lending facility amendment or in terms of keeping the economy open to let them continue to serve their customers.
Billionaire restaurant entrepreneur and Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta has had it with governors and mayors and their inconsistent “yo-yo” shutdown orders on his restaurants and the economy. He notes that despite news reports, hospitals are not even close to being overrun. “We’re not about to run out of hospital beds where we’re going to have people laying on the curve of the hospital.”
Fertitta is exasperated at the apparent lack of compassion that governors and mayors around the country have for the “poor working people of America” right now. “You cannot shut down the economy,” says Fertitta. “You cannot do this to employees. They did it to us again yesterday in California where they shut us down. There is no consideration at all for the poor working people of America right now the way they’re doing the yo-yo.”
Fertitta adds: “The problem is I’ve yet to see an elected official miss a paycheck. Until an elected official misses a paycheck and feels some pain this is going to continue to happen.”
We went through this shutdown a couple of weeks ago and the people were back out this weekend. But remember, restaurants can only operate at 50 percent capacity. There are no bars or clubs and everybody’s being careful and everybody’s wearing face masks. We kind of leveled off at around negative 50 right now. But it’s tough out there.
We hear all these stories about the hospitals in Texas. Let me just give you Texas Medical Center in Houston which is one of the largest in the world. I think it is the largest. They’re in phase two at nine percent (capacity). This is phase two out of three phases. We’re not about to run out of hospital beds where we’re going to have people laying on the curve of the hospital. You got to remember there are 350 million people, only one percent or 340,000 people have had it. That’s less than one percent. This has got to work itself through the community and we’ve got to protect the people that can get it.
Elected Officials Are Not Worried About The Little People
At the same, you cannot shut down the economy. You cannot do this to employees. They did it to us again yesterday in California where they shut us down. There is no consideration at all for the poor working people of America right now the way they’re doing the yo-yo. The problem is I’ve yet to see an elected official miss a paycheck. Until an elected official misses a paycheck and feels some pain this is going to continue to happen.
They’re not worried about all the little people out there that are such hardworking people that make America thrive. They get their paychecks. Get them to give up 50 percent of their paychecks and feel some pain and then they’ll make better decisions for all the working people out there.
We Cannot Continue To Have The Rules Change On Us
The problem is that we’ve got mayors, governors, city, and county judges trying to make decisions. I think it is time for the government to come in and if it’s signing the War Act or whatever and doing something across the board. Remember, how you can be fair is you use percentages. If your county or city or state has this percentage of cases these are the rules you follow. This is what has to be shut down. I do think it should be federally mandated to treat everybody the same.
We cannot continue to have governors and mayors change the rules on us every other week. That is what’s happening right now. It’s totally unfair. Less than one percent of America has gotten COVID and it’s not going away. If you think your kids are going back to school and if you think all these sports are going to be played in a normal season, it’s not going to happen. Somebody’s got to take control of this situation and mandate what we all do.
You Cannot Keep Your Employees At Work Down 54 Percent
Vegas is struggling because you’re not getting all the flights in. Vegas is so built on the convention business and so vegas is struggling. In Atlantic City, there’s nothing open in the restaurant. You can’t take a drink of water and take your mask off unless it’s a health issue where you’re dehydrated and about to pass out. But Lake Charles, Laughlin, Biloxi, all your regional casinos around the country, are doing okay. They really are. But Vegas is struggling and Atlantic City is struggling.
Let’s get into the restaurants. Your higher-end restaurants are doing better right now because you’re in July. Your waterfront restaurants are doing okay. But remember, you get back into your urban areas, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and there is nobody there. Most of them are just shut down or barely doing delivery to go. Overall, when you look at all my 600 restaurants in the month of July, I’m down 54 percent. You cannot operate at negative 54 percent. You cannot keep your employees at work at 54 percent.
Elected Officials Are Not Worried About The Little People, Says Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta
Google is pushing back its plans to reopen offices amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic.
CEO Sundar Pichai had previously stated that offices would open on July 6. In recent weeks, however, several states have seen significant increases in the number of cases, with some also seeing increased hospitalizations.
As a result, Google has pushed back its reopening date, saying that offices will remain closed until at least September 7. According to Bloomberg, Chris Rackow, Vice President of Global Security, informed employees via a memo.
“While conditions do vary from state to state, we need to see that the U.S. outlook as a whole is stable before we move forward,” wrote Rackow. “As the recent resurgence of cases demonstrates, Covid-19 is still very much alive in our communities.”
Many experts have said the pandemic would forever change how companies do business and interact with their employees. Some companies, such as Twitter, have said they plan on allowing employees to work from home forever.
Only time will tell if Google is able to meet its new September 7 deadline, or if the pandemic will push it back even further.
Amazon released its first quarter results, beating analysts revenue estimates while falling short of their earnings-per-share estimates.
Amazon has been at the center of the coronavirus pandemic, as the e-commerce giant has become a lifeline for many consumers sheltering in place. At the same time, Amazon has struggled to keep up with demand, initially hiring 100,000 extra warehouse workers, only to announce they would hire another 75,000 after that. The company also cut back fulfillment on non-essential items in an effort to keep up.
“From online shopping to AWS to Prime Video and Fire TV, the current crisis is demonstrating the adaptability and durability of Amazon’s business as never “before, but it’s also the hardest time we’ve ever faced,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO.
With their earnings report, the dichotomy of Amazon’s position was made clear. The company reported $75.5 billion in revenue, up from analysts’ expectations of $73.61 billion. However, earnings-per-share were only $5.01, instead of the $6.25 analysts expected.
Even more significantly, the company expects to spend all of the operating profit it will earn next quarter in an effort to deal with the challenges it’s facing as a result of the pandemic.
“Under normal circumstances, in this coming Q2, we’d expect to make some $4 billion or more in operating profit,” Bezos continued. “But these aren’t normal circumstances. Instead, we expect to spend the entirety of that $4 billion, and perhaps a bit more, on COVID-related expenses getting products to customers and keeping employees safe. This includes investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of our facilities, less efficient process paths that better allow for effective social distancing, higher wages for hourly teams, and hundreds of millions to develop our own COVID-19 testing capabilities.”
Many tech companies have expressed concern about the next quarter, in spite of doing reasonably well this quarter, and it appears Amazon is no exception, despite how important it has become during these times.
Watching the effects of people’s psychological reactions to the pandemic can give us clues as to how to save the economy. Early on people were stockpiling toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but why? As the pandemic has worn on, the things people are stocking up on have changed. From toilet paper to guns and ammo, why are people choosing the things they are choosing and what can that tell us about how to save the economy?
When the pandemic first reached the United States, people were buying up things they thought they would need immediately – toilet paper and hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer is somewhat obvious – officials announced early on that it was effective against the novel coronavirus when soap and water were not available, such as when you are grocery shopping.
But why toilet paper? Think about it this way – we went from spending the majority of our days outside of our homes at work and school to spending all day, every day in our homes. That means more of our, er, daily business is being done at home than usual. Hence the need for more toilet paper. And as the supply chain failed to keep up, it caused people to panic even more about whether they would be able to meet this most basic need for their families.
Within a few weeks, flour and baking yeast were flying off shelves. As yeast became scarce, everyone you know began baking sourdough bread because of the ability to capture and propagate wild yeast. As people began to settle into the idea they might be stuck at home for a while they started to look for creative outlets that also might turn into useful information for future survival. Baking bread fit the bill.
Later came spikes in beverage alcohol sales and hair dye. People wanted to escape reality with a new hair color or cover their gray roots so they didn’t have to think about the fact they are aging. And of course imbibing has long been a staple for people bored at home wanting a diversion.
Soon that diversion turned to panic, however, and people began to stock up on freezers, meat, guns, and ammo. The threat of running out of meat in the stores became real as meat processing plants began to shut down because of massive Covid-19 outbreaks. People needed a place to store their stockpile, so freezers sold out across the country. The threat of fights in grocery store parking lots became real, and people began to plan for the worst.
Then came chickens and vegetable plants. People decided they were probably going to be on their own for food soon and they stocked up on whatever kind of food they could produce themselves.
This all took place within the first several weeks of the pandemic. Over time compliance fatigue grew and people became restless. They began to demand the government allow the country to reopen, which led to a spike in coronavirus cases. Now hospitals are reaching capacity in heavily populated areas, mainly because people were tired of being afraid and wanted to get back to their daily lives.
Understanding this psychology could help us reach a point where it is safe to reopen the economy again. Wearing masks is probably the biggest thing we can do to make it safe to reopen the economy, so encouraging people to wear masks is the first step toward reopening the economy.
Learn more about how human psychology is affecting the economy and how we can move forward from the infographic below.
Investors hoping for a quick turnaround on Apple’s earnings may be in for a disappointment, as analysts are warning the epidemic may impact 2021.
The company is already feeling the effect of the coronavirus in the Chinese market, where it sold 494,000 iPhones last month, down from 1.27 million a year ago. According to The Street, Needham estimated normal supply and demand would resume by June 1.
The concern, however, is what will happen if supply and demand is not restored by then. Since Apple’s fiscal year begins October 1, if supply and demand remains impacted past June 1, financial results for fiscal 2021 will reflect that.
“The longer COVID-19 disruptions continue past June 1, the greater the threat to AAPL’s Sept new product launches (including its 5G phone) and Christmas selling season revenue, which represented about 32% of annual revs in each of the past 3 years,” said Needham analyst Laura Martin to investors and verified by The Street.
Should the coronavirus become a global pandemic, as the World Health Organization warns may happen, Needham’s fears will likely be realized.
Google has made a subtle change to how Photos backups work, excluding images received via social media and messaging apps.
Until now, Google Photos has automatically backed up folders created by Messages, WhatsApp, Kik and other messaging platforms. Google is making the change to help conserve internet resources.
“People are sharing more photos and videos due to COVID-19,” reads a statement on the Google Photos Help site. “To save internet resources, backup & sync has been turned off for device folders created by messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messages, and Kik. You can change this anytime in settings.”
As the statement says, the feature can be re-enabled for users that want all their photos backed up. Once the strain on the internet is alleviated, the company will likely turn it back on for all users.
They’ve become a familiar sight in shopping malls, but Microsoft has announced it is permanently closing its retail shops.
The company’s announcement reflects the changing retail landscape in the wake of COVID-19. Like most industries, the pandemic forced Microsoft’s retail employees to work remotely, where they focused on helping customers do the same. As a result, and thanks to the success of that initiative, the company will continue to focus on remote sales teams, providing assistance to customers all over the world.
“Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter. “We are grateful to our Microsoft Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations.
“We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills that could serve customers from anywhere. The evolution of our workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes when they needed us most, working remotely these last months,” continued Porter. “Speaking over 120 languages, their diversity reflects the many communities we serve. Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this talent pool is stronger than ever.”
This is a significant change in the company’s operations and it’s unlikely Microsoft will be the last company to reimagine its retail operations.
“One trend that is going to happen is that travel as we knew it is over,” says Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. “It doesn’t mean travel is over, just the travel we knew is over… and it’s never coming back. It’s just not. Not surprising, we’ve spent twelve years building Airbnb’s business and lost almost all of it in a matter of four to six weeks.”
Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, discusses how COVID has wreaked havoc on the travel industry and Airbnb and how it has literally changed travel as we know it.
Airbnb’s Built Over 12 Years – Gone in 6 Weeks
One thing I’ve learned is not to try to get in the business of predicting the future. Anyone who has made predictions has not done very well in the last few months. What I can tell you is the following. Beginning with March travel was at a standstill, almost virtually stopped. There were 2.5 billion people locked down. Not surprising, we’ve spent twelve years building Airbnb’s business and lost almost all of it in a matter of four to six weeks.
What’s happened over the last three or four months though is something else entirely. People are saying they want to get out of the house but they want to be safe. They don’t want to get on airplanes. They don’t want to travel for business. They don’t want to go to cities and they don’t want to cross borders. What they are willing to do is to get in a car and drive a couple hundred miles to a small community where they are willing to stay in a house.
Now Something Remarkable Has Happened
Because of that, although our business has not recovered, something remarkable happened. At the end of May and early June, we have the same volume of bookings in the United States as the year before… without any marketing. Zero marketing whatsoever. This is just showing that people are yearning for something. They’re yearning for connection. They want to be connected to the communities and to each other. They want to get outside. I think that travel is going to come back. It’s just going to take a lot longer than we would have thought and it’s going to be different.
We have dramatically reduced our costs. We reduced our cost and it was an incredibly difficult and harrowing experience. We said that we don’t know how long this storm will take so I’m going to hope for the best but I’m planning for the worst. So if there is a new shutdown or multiple shutdowns and travel stops again we will be okay because of the changes we’ve made. We’ve cut nearly a billion dollars of marketing. We’ve had to reduce our staff, and we’ve become very lean and nimble.
We’ve also been resilient. We’ve launched online experiences that people can do from home. We have longer term stays. A large percentage of our bookings, almost a fifth, are for stays longer than 30 days. Another thing is that we have not lost any hosts on our platform. We actually have more hosts and homes today than before COVID started. The important thing here is that the market is resilient.
Travel As We Knew It Is Over
One trend that is going to happen is that travel as we knew it is over. It doesn’t mean travel is over, just the travel we knew is over… and it’s never coming back. It’s just not. No one quite knows what it will look like but I have a couple of thoughts. Instead of the world’s population traveling to only a few cities and staying in big tourist districts we are going to see a redistribution of where people travel. They’re going to start traveling because they are going nearby to thousands of local communities.
We have had fairly ambitious real estate expansion plans and we have paused those plans. We are not adding more real estate. I think more people are going to work remotely. Also, working from home can be working from any home, and that’s an opportunity for Airbnb. You are going to see major population redistribution on the table. Not everyone is going to want to live in the same city. That being said, we don’t know the full cost of entire workforces being remote.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Travel As We Knew It Is Over
Work-from-home is one of the biggest impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, and it appears its a change that is here to stay.
As the pandemic swept the globe, companies big and small sent workers home to telecommute. Some even went so far as to provide budgets for their employees to buy what they needed for their home offices. Even as restrictions have eased up, many companies have decided to make work-from-home options a permanent option.
According to a new S&P Global Market Intelligence survey, 67% of enterprises expect their work-from-home policies to extend permanently, or at least for the long-term. S&P Global surveyed 575 IT decision-makers across a range of industries.
“As organizations are heading back to the office in the wake of COVID-19, it is important to quantify what changes materialized during these past few months as a potential indication for the future of work,” said Liam Eagle, Head of Voice of the Enterprise Research at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. “Leveraging timely data from our flash survey capabilities can help us better understand these changes and overall market sentiment, while enabling organizations to make informed business decisions during times of uncertainty.”
The survey found that only 19% of organizations intend to bring back employees as soon as possible, 25% in a month or more and 24% have no planned timeline. Not surprisingly, 79% see social distancing as the single biggest impediment to returning to normal office operations.
An interesting side effect is an expected reduction in office space. Some 47% of companies said they are likely to reduce their physical office space as a result of the pandemic and the changing work landscape, with at least 20% planning to reduce their office space by as much as 25%.
The survey is an interesting look at the long-term issues facing companies, and a barometer of just how much the pandemic has permanently changed the workplace.
The jobs numbers keep coming in and it’s far more dire than anyone has yet predicted. An additional 2.5 million jobless claims were filed in May alone, bringing the unemployment rate to more than 18%. In some places it is higher, and those numbers continue to climb every day. The pandemic has taken a toll on workers and businesses alike, shuttering businesses that aren’t essential or safe enough for people to use until the pandemic has passed. Bars and restaurants have been hit especially hard, and many of those businesses will not be able to make a comeback. Unemployment is tricky to navigate for the majority of people who have never needed to do so before, and supporting furloughed and laid off workers is going to continue to be crucial until the economy fully recovers.
Layoffs and furloughs are a little different and require different resources to address. Layoffs are permanent separations from a company with the possibility of being recalled to work. Along with this method of separation, workers also lose any benefits such as health insurance, which means they will need access to COBRA in order to retain their healthcare, of particular importance in a pandemic.
Furloughs are a little different from layoffs. Furloughed employees retain many of their benefits, such as health insurance, during the time they are not reporting for work. They also have the expectation of being called back to work after a given period of time, so their period of joblessness is finite though still unpaid.
There are also other categories of workers who have lost their jobs or some of their income who may qualify for unemployment benefits in their states. Substitute teachers, freelance workers, and others who lack traditional employment structures don’t typically qualify for unemployment benefits, but new rules have allowed them to take advantage of a system they have long been prevented from using. Part time workers and those who had their hours cut have also previously been denied coverage but now also qualify for unemployment benefits in many states.
Most notably, people who had no choice but to quit reporting to work in order to care for children or at-risk adult family members also now qualify for unemployment benefits.
Navigating the unemployment system can be daunting. If you live in one state and work in another, file in the state in which you work. In most places you can file online if you have internet access, but of course if you don’t have internet access or an internet-capable device your options have become severely limited as libraries and coffee shops that typically offer free access have closed down.
Because of the pandemic most states have waived the waiting period to apply for benefits, and the Federal Government is kicking in an additional $600 a month until the end of July.
If you’ve never been unemployed before, it’s nothing to be ashamed about. You will recover from this. Learn more about how to navigate unemployment from the infographic below.
“If people can ride the subway and if people can go to Trader Joe’s and pack into all these different places we can start to open factories,” says legendary tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis during an interview on CNBC:
When we look at the issues around reopening it’s very confusing for people running businesses today and I think for Americans generally. We’re not allowed to go to the beach and we’re not allowed to play golf but we can take the subway. This is the incredible failure of our government from the federal level down to the local level to not be able to give basic instructions and to have a clear voice.
Somehow this has turned into a political issue which is the worst of all outcomes. You’re a Republican right-wing person if you want to go back to work. On the left if you let people go back to work you’re committing murder. It’s ridiculous. We have to take a much more measured thoughtful approach to let people go back to work who want to. I understand people are scared people and they can opt-out of this.
We’ve got a lot of people who work behind keyboards, some of them in the media, who really want to tell people they can’t go back to work when they have a six-figure job clicking keys on a keyboard. It’s not very realistic. Certainly, if people can ride the subway and if people can go to Trader Joe’s and pack into all these different places we can start to open factories.
If People Can Ride the Subway We Can Open Factories, Says Jason Calacanis
Mount Sinai Hospital has found an innovative use for Google Nest cameras, using them to help monitor and communicate with COVID-19 patients.
As the pandemic has swept the globe, and hit New York particularly hard, one of the challenges medical staff have faced is treating patients while simultaneously dealing with a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). There have been instances of doctors and nurses rushing in without PPE to save a patient’s life, only to succumb to the virus themselves.
Mount Sinai may have come up with one of the most creative ways to reduce contact, and thereby conserve PPE equipment, thanks to the use of Google Nest cameras.
“We needed to find a way to give caregivers the ability to check on and communicate with patients that could supplement in-person checks, also helping reduce the use of PPE,” writes Robbie Freeman, MSN, RN-BC in charge of the hospital’s clinical innovation efforts, in a guest post on Google’s blog. “Together with Google, we explored how to build a Nest Camera experience that would help health care workers more efficiently care for patients and preserve PPE.
“Starting this week, we began installing two Nest Cameras in more than a hundred rooms being used to help Coronavirus patients—in most rooms one will be used to monitor and communicate with patients and the other will monitor their vitals. Video from the cameras will be livestreamed to a purpose built console located in Mount Sinai nurse stations (Google will not store this footage or have access to it). This purpose-built console was designed to aid health care workers; it allows for monitoring patients, tracking vitals and talking with the patients. Now that health care providers can help patients from their stations, it saves both time and PPE.”
This is an innovative use for Google’s cameras and, as Freeman points out, will likely be copied by hospitals across the country.
A well-known AWS VP and Distinguished Engineer has quit his job over Amazon firing coronavirus whistleblowers.
Tim Bray published his decision in an open letter on his website, outlining his reasons for leaving the company. Bray had worked at Amazon for over five years. Prior to that, he had worked at Google for four years. Bray says he “quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.”
The problems began with climate protests within the company last year, which Bray says resulted in protest leaders being threatened with dismissal. Things took a downhill turn with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, with workers complaining that not enough was being done to inform and protect them, despite official claims to the contrary.
Things escalated when “a worker organizing for better safety conditions was fired, and brutally insensitive remarks appeared in leaked executive meeting notes where the focus was on defending Amazon ‘talking points.’”
Within short order, individuals leading protests were fired using reasons that Bray called “laughable.” He maintains that any objective observer could see the firings for what they were—an attempt to silence whistleblowers.
“At that point I snapped,” Bray continues. “VPs shouldn’t go publicly rogue, so I escalated through the proper channels and by the book. I’m not at liberty to disclose those discussions, but I made many of the arguments appearing in this essay. I think I made them to the appropriate people.
“That done, remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned.”
Mr. Bray’s entire post is well worth a read. He has praise for AWS division and how it treats its employees, while making the point that the elite status of AWS workers necessitates better treatment. In contrast, the relatively low-paid warehouse workers don’t have the same power or platform to demand proper treatment.
Whatever one thinks of Amazon, whistleblowers or even Mr. Bray, one must admire a man willing to stand up for what he believes in—even at great cost to himself.
A group of senators will introduce legislation to help protect consumer privacy as companies focus on using data to help combat COVID-19.
Governments and companies around the world have turned to big data in an effort to map the spread of the coronavirus, and try to get ahead of it. One of the most publicized efforts is being undertaken by Apple and Google, as the two companies work on a contact tracing API. The API, and subsequent apps, will use anonymous Bluetooth keys to keep track of the phones an individual has been in close proximity with. If a person tests positive, each person that has been in contact with them over the previous 14 days will be notified they have been exposed and need to quarantine.
Needless to say, many individuals have expressed concern over the privacy implications and, as a result, half of Americans have no intention of installing any contact tracing app.
To help ease concerns, and protect the privacy of Americans, Senators Roger Wicker, John Thune, Jerry Moran and Marsha Blackburn have announced their intention to introduce a data privacy bill. The goal is to provide much-needed transparency and give consumers a measure of control over how their data will be used, as well as hold businesses accountable for how they use it.
“While the severity of the COVID-19 health crisis cannot be overstated, individual privacy, even during times of crisis, remains critically important,” said Thune. “This bill strikes the right balance between innovation – allowing technology companies to continue their work toward developing platforms that could trace the virus and help flatten the curve and stop the spread – and maintaining privacy protections for U.S. citizens.”
Here’s to hoping the legislation will help prevent abuses of consumer data.
Walmart has announced it is rolling out its Express Delivery service in nearly 1,000 stores.
Walmart has been piloting Express Delivery in 100 stores since mid-April, but has accelerated the development of the program in an effort to meet customers’ needs in the midst of the pandemic. Express Delivery will let customers order some 160,000 items from stores and have them delivered to their doorstep within two hours.
“We know our customers’ lives have changed during this pandemic, and so has the way they shop,” said Janey Whiteside, chief customer officer, Walmart. “We also know when we come out of this, customers will be busier than ever, and sometimes that will call for needing supplies in a hurry. COVID-19 has prompted us to launch Express Delivery even faster so that we’re here for our customers today and in the future.”
The service will debut in nearly 1,000 stores in early May, reaching nearly 2,000 stores in the coming weeks. This is good news for shoppers around the country, as they endeavor to stay safe during the pandemic.
Reddit has pulled its newly announced “Start Chatting” features amid an uproar on the part of moderators.
Start Chatting was designed to help make it easier for people to connect with other individuals to talk about common interests. According to the official launch post, Reddit “wanted to give you a heads up about a new feature that we are launching this week called ‘Start Chatting.’ This past month, as people around the world have been at home under various shelter-in-place restrictions, redditors have been using chat at phenomenal new levels. Whether it’s about topics related to COVID-19, local news, or just their favorite games and hobbies, people all around the world are looking for others to talk to. Since Reddit is in a unique position to help in this situation, we’ve created a new tool that makes it easier to find other people who want to talk about the same things you do.”
While the goal may have been admirable, it was not well received by the community. At the time of writing, the announcement had received some 1,400 comments, many of them negative and many of them highlighting some of the very difficult issues the new feature would create. For example, one of the moderators for r/abuse pointed out that people only felt safe discussing their past abuse in that community because moderators were able to aggressively protect them from trolls, perverts and abusive individuals—protection that would not be available if members could engage in moderator-free chat.
It seems the complaints have been heard, as Reddit has fully rolled back the feature. According to the update post, Reddit says they “will not roll the feature out within your community again without having a way for you to opt out, and will provide you with ample notice and regular updates going forward.”
Start Chatting has real potential to be a game-changer for Reddit, but it’s obvious some considerations were overlooked in the initial implementation. Here’s to hoping they get it right the second time around.
