Artificial Intelligence Expected to Double in 4 Years

9/8/2020

1.4M

The U.S economy added 1.4 million jobs in August — the fourth consecutive month of job gains but the numbers are still down from July’s 1.7M and a strong 4.8M new jobs added in June. According to the Labor Department, nearly a fifth of the job gains were from the government’s temporary hiring of nearly 238,000 workers for the 2020 Census. The department noted that workers flooded back to jobs in leisure and hospitality increased by 174,000, education and health services (147,000), retail trade (249,000), and professional and business services added 197,000 jobs in August. Meanwhile, the jobless rate declined to 8.4% — falling below 10% for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, “the job market is recovering slowly — a long way from returning to its pre-pandemic strength”, said Daniel Zhao, senior economist.

881,000

Initial U.S unemployment claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 881,000 for the week ended August 29 — better than the 950,000 Dow Jones estimate but down from 130,000 in the prior week revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Weekly new claims brought the 24-week’s total to 59.3 million. Meanwhile, the unadjusted initial claims rose to 833,352 — an increase of 7,591 from the previous week. Furthermore, 51 states reported that initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance rose about 759,482 — an increase of 151,674. For the week ended Aug 29, the most advanced initial claims were in California led the way with 236,874 initial claims, New York (63,355), and Texas (56,759). Meanwhile, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming had the least advanced initial claims across all the states.

$91B

A new study by Upwork economist Adam Ozimek shows that remote working has saved Americans commuters nearly $91 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic began — an estimated total of $758 million per day by staying home instead of driving to work, according to the report. It surveyed 1,000 people remote workers to see how much time they are saving sans commute. Economist estimates that for every day of the pandemic, $183 million was saved in fuel, maintenance, and repairs. Reduced accidents, pollution and congestion contributed $164 million. The data shows that each commuter has saved more than $2,000 so far by working remotely since mid-March. Fewer trips to gas stations or mechanics add another $183 million in daily saving, according to research from the freelance platform Upwork.

2024

According to the International Data Corporation, the global artificial intelligence is forecast to double in the next four years — growing from $50.1 billion in 2020 to more than $110 billion in 2024 as organizations deploy artificial intelligence as part of their digital transformation efforts and to ensure that they remain competitive in the digital economy. According to the stats for the 2019–2024 period, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 20.1%. The fastest spending growth in AI will be in software through 2024 — with a five-year CAGR of 22.5%. Many businesses are looking to use AI in customer service departments and employee performance as well. Retail and banking will spend the most amount of money on AI through 2024, the report shows. Organizations are going to adopt AI — not because they can, but they must, said Ritu Jyoti, IDC’s vice president of artificial intelligence projects.

100%

The CBO estimates that the federal budget deficit is projected to hit a record $3.3 trillion in the fiscal year ending this month — more than triple the deficit in 2019. That’s about 16% GDP in 2020 — the largest since the end of World War II in 1945. The debt level set to hit a worrying milestone next year, the CBO said in its budget outlook for 2020–2030. The federal debt is expected to exceed 100% of the nation’s total GDP in 2021, which begins October 1, and then it’s predicted to climbing to $24.5 trillion — 107% of GDP in 2023 — the highest in the nation’s history, according to the report by CBO.

410,451

According to the New York Times database, the United States reported more than 6.2M COVID-19 confirmed cases and the total death toll surpassed 188,815 –failing to control the pandemic and becoming the world’s hardest-hit country. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is now projecting 410,451 Covid-19 deaths in the United States by Jan. 1, 2021. It also added that as many as 122,000 projected deaths could be avoided if 95% of Americans wore masks each time they left their homes, where face coverings in public can reduce infection rates, hospitalizations as well as forecast deaths. To see the confirmed cases by country/region and sovereignty, see this map and dashboards of COVID-19 from Worldometers.

121

The National Weather Service said Los Angeles County’s recording-breaking temperature of 121 degrees was set before 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Woodland Hills — topping the previous record high at the weather site was 119 degrees set on July 2006. The heatwave continued to move throughout Southern California, officials said. The scorching temperatures in California come as three major wildfires have continued to burn in the state. The extreme heat has caused power outages for more than 60,000 homes, according to poweroutage.us. People are advised to avoid outdoors as much as possible and also a statewide flex alert is issued as temperature soar.