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The Japanese concept of Ikigai, or a “reason for being,” encompasses the intersection of four essential elements: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for.
Finding your Ikigai can have profound effects on your wellbeing and health. There’s been much discourse about “Blue Zones” on social media, or areas with the highest density of people over 100 years old. One of the commonalities among the zones is a strong sense of purpose among elders, research has shown.
BREAKING NEWS
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a continued, relentless response to an unprecedented attack from Palestinian militants Saturday, one of the largest attacks on Israel by Hamas in decades. An Israeli official has confirmed Americans are among the “scores” of hostages being held in Gaza, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said officials are still working to verify reports of American deaths—as the total Israeli and Palestinian death toll passes 1,100.
Global oil prices surged early on Monday as the conflict continued, though analysts cited by several outlets noted that the sharp spike in prices is likely a “knee-jerk” response to the conflict, as it is expected to have little overall impact on supply provided it does not escalate.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
Utilities have long been considered the most reliable sector of the stock market, with dependable returns and high dividend yields. But investors are fleeing them, with the S&P 500 Utilities sector down 21% this year, on track for its first drop of more than 5% since 2008. Plus, the industry is entering uncharted territory, in some respects, with more severe weather threats than ever before.
The U.S. added 336,000 jobs in September, far more than the 170,000 economists anticipated, and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%. But investors fear the better-than-expected job numbers could cause the Fed to hike interest rates again, and the Dow plummeted over 220 points following the release.
WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP
William Goldring, the 80-year-old chairman of the Sazerac Company, which captures 14% of volume of the U.S. spirits market, debuted on this year’s Forbes 400 with a net worth of $6 billion. But while the company produces some of the most coveted and expensive bourbon in the world, its bottom shelf products like Fireball, which has exploded in popularity, made him rich.
Chinese billionaire Sun Guangxin’s scuttled Texas wind farm helped spark a political movement to restrict foreign land ownership. Now 13 oil and gas outfits claim he owes them millions or was late to pay for work completed months ago.
TECH + INNOVATION
In a recent incident in San Francisco, a woman was struck by a human-driven car and then immediately hit by one of Cruise’s robotaxis. The company previously said that after the woman was knocked into another lane of traffic, she was then struck by a Cruise autonomous vehicle that “braked aggressively to minimize the impact.” But a local politician told Forbes the AV “dragged her underneath the car for approximately 20 feet, which was the source of her major injuries,” and is now accusing Cruise of “telling a half-truth.”
MONEY + POLITICS
Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in fighting for women’s rights, a year after Iran was roiled in nationwide protests against the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The Nobel Committee praised Mohammadi for her “fight to promote human rights and freedom for all” and highlighted the harsh treatment Mohammadi has received from Iran’s leaders.
Fox News made plans to host a debate with the candidates for Speaker of the House and called them off just hours later after the three Republicans who were asked to participate declined the invitation. Republicans were concerned the event could intensify the turmoil within the party as the GOP seeks to rebuild following Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT
Four-time Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast Simone Biles is now the most decorated gymnast of all time, after winning her 34th medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Belgium. The 26-year-old gymnast is also the world’s eighth-highest-paid female athlete, making roughly $10 million as of December 2022, primarily outside of gymnastics, per Forbes.
Limited marketing opportunities and a slow-growing salary cap mean hockey players earn less than other sports stars. But Alex Ovechkin, a left wing for the Washington Capitals, and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, who shared the No. 1 spot on Forbes’ 2023 list of the highest-paid NHL players, both managed to bring in $17.5 million each this season.
TRENDS + EXPLAINERS
With affirmative action outlawed after the Supreme Court’s ruling, and use of SATs in decline, selective colleges are paying ever more attention to essays. Students, their advisors and admissions offices are all now wrestling with a second new issue: how ChatGPT might affect those ever more important essays. Some schools are instructing applicants not to use AI to assist or write their essays, and others allow it as a learning experience to generate ideas.
DAILY COVER STORY
‘Keep Your Paws Off My Voice’: Voice Actors Worry Generative AI Will Steal Their Livelihoods
TOPLINE ElevenLabs’ technology only requires between 30 seconds to 10 minutes worth of audio to create what sounds like a near-identical replica of someone’s voice. The startup, valued at about $100 million, is one of the hottest voice AI companies right now, but it’s also at the center of generative AI’s impact on voice actors.
Interviews with 10 voice actors revealed an already precarious industry on the brink of widespread change as employers begin to experiment with these text-to-speech tools.
Like striking film actors, who are sounding the alarm about the coming of AI and how it could affect their jobs, voice actors are on the front lines of technological change. But unlike other creative fields, where authors and artists are banding together in class-action lawsuits to push back against their copyrighted work being used to train AI models, voice actors are uniquely vulnerable. Even though voices are inherently distinguishable, they cannot be patented and aren’t protected under copyright law.
That’s why the newly formed National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) union, and the actors union SAG-AFTRA, are working to strike verbiage from contracts that allows employers to use an actor’s voice to create a “digital double,” or “synthesize” their voice through machine learning.
After ElevenLabs rolled out the beta version of its text-to-speech AI tool in January, the startup announced that it was struggling with people misusing its technology. A day later, Vice’s Motherboard found that anonymous 4Chan posters used ElevenLabs’ then free cloning tool to generate racist, transphobic and violent remarks with the voices of celebrities like Joe Rogan and Emma Watson.
Numerous voice actors have experienced fans manipulating their voices using generative AI tools to create pornographic, racist and violent content. In response to misuse, voice generation sites are adding restrictive measures to police their technologies. These kinds of verification checks, however, don’t address higher level ethical questions around consent.
The big concern hovering over voice actors is controlling how and where their voices are used, and being paid for it.
MORE George R.R. Martin And Other Big-Name Authors Sue OpenAI For Copyright Infringement
FACTS AND COMMENTS
Starting in January, eligible electric vehicle buyers can receive a federal tax credit as an upfront discount at the dealership, instead of having to wait to claim EV credits on their federal income tax returns. It’s the latest federal move to turbocharge the shift to electric vehicles:
50%: The share of new vehicles the White House is pushing to have be electric by 2030
Up to $7,500: The credits for new EV vehicles and up to $4,000 for pre-owned vehicles, provided both the buyers and vehicles meet certain requirements
$53,469: The average cost of an electric car, per data from Cox Automotive
STRATEGY AND SUCCESS
Women are more ambitious than before the pandemic and nearly as ambitious as men, according to new research, but they face hurdles in their career advancement. Men are far more likely to be promoted from entry-level jobs to management, a phenomenon known as the “broken rung” on the first step of women’s career ladder, and women also face more microaggressions at work than their male counterparts.
VIDEO
QUIZ
A European prime minister wants to ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. Children who are aged 14 or younger today would never be able to legally buy tobacco products in the future under the policy proposed in which country?
A. Sweden
B. England
C. Portugal
D. Ireland
Check your answer.
ACROSS THE NEWSROOM
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