MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Large Study Finds That Replacing Workers With AI Is Backfiring Badl

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Large Study Finds That Replacing Workers With AI Is Backf

As AI continues to weave its way into every corner of daily life, one of the public’s chief fears is what it will mean in the workplace.

They’re not irrational to worry. Many name-brand big tech companies have already sacked thousands of workers in favor of the technology, from Meta to Square — a trend that sets up a natural experiment: are these AI layoffs actually resulting in positive business outcomes?

That’s why a new study from Gartner immediately caught our eye. As Fortune reports, the research and advisory firm surveyed 350 global business executives whose companies are pulling in at least $1 billion annually to investigate whether all these AI layoffs are paying off in the real world.

The first takeaway is that the trend is real, with a total of 80 percent admitted to trimming their human staff to make investments in AI or autonomous technology. But they say they had no idea if AI would actually generate any benefits — they were simply buying into the promise of automation via AI.

That’s where things get interesting. The Gartner survey found that execs who slashed staff to invest in AI have seen the same financial gains as those who held onto their employees. In othe words, attempting to replace workers with AI isn’t showing any detectable returns for these companies. And to make matters worse, many of these businesses specifically reduced their headcount to free up the cash needed for AI technology, meaning they sacrificed valuable institutional knowledge and employee goodwill for nothing.

The findings aren’t entirely surprising. An MIT study last year found that AI is failing to generate meaningful revenue growth at the vast majority of companies that embrace it.

Still, not everyone believes that all investment in AI is destined to backfire. Gartner analyst Helen Poitevin told Fortune that these seemingly drastic moves by execs may simply be attempts to trial AI, not to structurally reset the whole company.

“It seems to us to be a kind of one-time exercise by many in small amounts, but not what translates to getting full ROI from their AI investment,” Poitevin told Fortune.

So which companies are seeing an actual bump from AI?

The Gartner survey found that companies leveraging AI as a form of “people amplification” — meaning they give their employees AI tools to boost efficiency, instead of replacing them outright — are seeing the most significant gains. Even that strategy is fraught, though: previous research has suggested that the majority of employees aren’t keen on using AI just yet, with one survey revealing 54 percent avoid using in-house AI tools altogether.

More on labor: Tech Workers Are in Deep, Deep Trouble

The post Large Study Finds That Replacing Workers With AI Is Backfiring Badly appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: China’s new 800-cycle lithium-sulfur battery could nearly doub

Chinese researchers have developed a lithium-sulfur battery design that could significantly extend drone flight times by solving one of the technology’s biggest long-standing problems.

A research team led by Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School said it created a new molecular strategy that improves reaction efficiency inside lithium-sulfur batteries while reducing energy loss during operation.

The advance could help push battery energy density far beyond the limits of current lithium-ion systems used in most commercial drones. Conventional lithium-ion batteries typically deliver less than 300 watt-hours per 2.2 lb, limiting flight duration and payload capacity.

Lithium-sulfur batteries have long been viewed as a next-generation alternative because sulfur is cheap, abundant, and capable of storing much higher amounts of energy. But the chemistry has remained difficult to stabilize during repeated charging and discharging cycles.

Molecule stops energy loss

One of the biggest challenges in lithium-sulfur batteries is the formation of soluble intermediate compounds during operation. These compounds drift through the battery, causing slow reactions and reducing efficiency over time.

To address this, the researchers introduced what they called a “premediator” for sulfur electrochemistry. According to researchers, the additive remains inactive until the sulfur reaction begins.

“Think of it as a special additive that sleeps inside the battery until it is needed. When the sulfur reaction starts, the additive wakes up right where the action is and begins to work,” Zhou Guangmin, a researcher at Tsinghua SIGS told Xinhua news agency..

Once activated, the molecule captures the drifting intermediates and improves charge transport inside the battery. Researchers said the design creates faster reaction pathways and stabilizes the overall electrochemical process.

The team also redesigned the internal reaction network at the molecular level. According to the researchers, the new approach reduced internal battery resistance by 75 percent compared to conventional lithium-sulfur designs.

In laboratory tests, the battery maintained stable performance for 800 charge-discharge cycles while retaining nearly 82 percent of its original capacity.

Drones gain longer range

Researchers also built a prototype pouch cell that achieved an energy density of 549 watt-hours per 2.2 lb, nearly double that of many drone batteries currently in use.

“For drones, this matters a lot. Higher energy density means longer flight times, bigger payloads, and more working range,” Zhou said.

The team said the technology could improve several drone applications, including package delivery, power-line inspection, and emergency response operations where longer airtime is critical.

“A delivery drone could fly farther to drop off packages. A power line inspection drone could cover more towers in one go. A search-and-rescue drone could stay in the air longer when every minute counts,” Zhou added.

Beyond drones, the researchers believe the molecular design strategy could also be adapted for flow batteries, lithium-metal batteries, and battery recycling technologies.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com