Happy Friday! Ever wondered what Elon Musk’s xAI stands for Of course you have According to a recent Tesla filing, the startup’s full name is Artificial Intelligence There’s just one problem: Neither Musk nor xAI appears to have publicly said that’s the case In today’s big story, companies’ push to get employees back to the office includes looking at the data. It’s working better for some Microsoft more than others
AT&T = Attendance taking & trouble.
That’s the pickle the telecom giant is in when it comes to enforcing its RTO policy. A system meant to track the hours workers actually spend in the office is causing more headaches than it’s worth, reports BI’s Dominick Reuter
AT&T chief marketing and growth officer Kellyn Kenny told employees last month she understands inaccuracies in the attendance tracking tool are “driving people to the brink of frustration
In case you aren’t dialed in to what’s going on at AT&T here’s a refresher AT&T required people to return to the offce five days a week at the begnning of the year. The rollout didn’t go smoothly, with everything from paring spots to desks filling up quickly Things seemed to come to a head last month when CEO John Stankey sent a memo telling workers to get on board with RTO or get out of the way
AT&T’s attendance tracker was meant to suss out people abusing the system by swiping into the office only for a few hours, known as “coffee-badging.” To catch those “freeloaders,” as Kenny described them, the company set up benchmarks around the number of hours and days workers were to badge in
But the data wasn’t always perfect. Routine things — attending doctors’ appointments, taking lunch complicated matters
In some cases, AT&T’s attendance tracker backfired. If the company wanted eight hours a day, workers wondered, why bother putting in more time than that
Meanwhile, another corner of the business world is touting its RTO data
Microsoft executives told employees at an all-employee town hall that internal data shows workers spending more time in the office are “thriving,” writes BI’s Ashley Stewart.
The data comes after Microsoft announced its RTO plans.
Microsoft HR chief Amy Coleman said people who spend at least three days in the office, which is Microsoft’s new RTO mandate, are energized, empowered, and find meaning in their work.
However, CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged the importance of maintaining some flexibility with work, according to internal comments at the town hall reviewed by Ashley
“There’s tons of empowerment here for people to go organize this in such a way that it works for the folks Nadella said
1. Inflation came in as hot as expected
CPI data showed inflation in August ticked up to 2.9% up from 2.7% in June and July The new numbers have had little effect on the Fed’s likelihood of cutting rates next week which traders and econmists still expect to happen
2. Nvidia has finally won over one of Wall Street’s biggest skeptics
DA Davidson changed its rating on the chip giant’s stock from neutral to buy raising its price target from $195 to $210 a share The firm cited rapid development and AI adoption among companies for its flipped perspective
3. Everything’s bigger in Texas — even the banks
Big financial players like Goldman Sachs JPMorgan, and the New York Stock Exchange are setting up shop in the Lone Star State which promises business-friendly taxes See what they’re up to out west
3 things in tech USA
1. US data center construction breaks new ground Thanks to ever-rising demand from AI spending on data center construction hit $40 billion annually in June up 28% from the year before. That’s a new record, and it shows no signs of slowing: Big Tech’s spree could total more than $1 trillion by 2028
2. Oh great now there’s AI “psychosis risk” to worry about
Wall Street is beginning to evaluate AI chatbots and models based on psychosis risk or the tendency of the bot to exacerbate user mental health problems. A recent study showed stark differences between the models that mitigate risk and those that amplify it leaving analysts concerned
3. It looks like Microsoft might be trying to forge its own AI path
The company is planning “significant investments” in its own AI chip cluste, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said in an all-employee town hall meeting. Microsoft appears to be drifing apart from OpenAI with Suleyman saying it should be self sufficent” in the sector
3 things in business
1. A TikTok challenger’s mysterious demise
Video app Flip looked primed to take over TikTok’s dominance in mid-January amid mounting regulatory pressure. Seven months later, the $1 billion company was dead. Former employees investors creators, and more told BI how it flew and then flopped
2. David Ellison means business
Paramount’s reported bid for Warner Bros. Discovery shows the Paramount CEO is serious about taking on Netflix and Disney for Hollywood’s crown. It doesn’t hurt that he has the financial backing of his father, Larry Ellison, who briefly became the richest man in the world this week
3. America’s oldest workers are taking pay cuts
As part of BI’s 80 over 80 series dozens of older workers told us they earn less than $20 an hour Many held white collar or high paying blue-colar jobs before but took on low-paying jobs as they got older to make ends meet
