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Good Afternoon Party People! 🎉

Well, well, well. The Chiefs are champs again. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift ride off into the sunset. It’s a love story, baby just say yes.

43.75% of you were right in last week’s poll which asked “who will win the big game?!”. 25% of you said that T-Swift would be the real winner. And the remaining thought the 49ers would win.

PARTY PLAN 🎉

🤖 Company loses MILLIONS from deepfakes

🏀 College basketball team unionizes?!

🛏️ YOU have a right to disconnect

And, of course, MEMES!

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Company Loses MILLIONS From Deepfake Scam

The AI apocalypse is getting weird.

A company recently lost millions of dollars after falling for a convincing deepfake scam. Hard to blame ‘em, AI is getting more and more realistic by the day.

An employee working in the Hong Kong office of a multinational company transferred roughly $26 million to scammers last month after being duped into attending a video call with deepfakes of co-workers. The employee was the only real person on the call.

AI-generated representations of high-ranking employees, including the company’s CFO, were convincing enough to cost the company millions of dollars.

The scammers even followed up via instant messages, email, and one-on-one fake video calls (how clueless is this guy?!). The employee didn’t realize it was a scam until a week later at which point he contacted the company’s head office.

Good luck telling your boss you just gave $26M to scammers because of AI 🤣 

The investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

Don’t fall for deepfakes, people!

PAY

College Basketball Team Unionizes?!

Leave it to the Ivy League kids to figure out a way to make more money…

Last week, a regional official of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Dartmouth Basketball players qualify as employees of the school, and can therefore hold an election to unionize. If successful, the union would be the first of its kind.

All 15 members of the team signed a petition last year asking to join a section of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents other employees at the school in New Hampshire.

Unionizing would allow players to negotiate salary and “working conditions” including practice hours and travel.

Players and lawyers familiar with the situation say successfully forming a union would be monumental to college sports.

The NCAA recently changed the ruling for players, allowing them to get compensated for their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Now, unions may take over college sports.

The school is expected to appeal the decision to the NLRB (boooo!). Separately, another case is ongoing in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that claims NCAA athletes are entitled to minimum-wage protections under state and federal laws.

Regardless, players still aren’t making nearly as much as many college coaches.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

YOU Have a Right to Disconnect

The big issue with remote work? Employees feeling like they can never fully disconnect. Work becomes life. Life becomes work. And every day seems like Groundhog’s Day.

But not for long…

In Australia, companies could face fines for penalizing employees that don’t respond to work-related communication after hours if the legislation passes.

Australia is already among the world leaderboards for the happiest and most fulfilled workers.

Maybe other countries could take a page out of their book.

Last Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that will further solidify their spot in the top world rankings. The bill is expected to overwhelmingly pass in the house (take notes, USA).

Companies that punish employees for not responding to work-related emails, texts, or phone calls after hours could face major fines.

“Betta not slack him, mate! Wouldn’t wanna get the company fined!”

Unions and other employee rights advocate groups have long argued that workers have the right to disconnect. The issue picked up steam worldwide during the pandemic when a widespread shift to remote work further blurred the lines between work life and home life.

Critics of the bill (mostly businesses afraid of being fined) have called it an overreach from the government and say it will make it harder for businesses to get their work done.

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The animal instinct that drives workers to adopt corporate jargon 

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