contractors

“Revel Announces Layoffs of 1,000 Ride-Hail Drivers, Emphasizing Preference for Contract Work”

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And it started an all-Tesla, all-employee ride-hail service, in part so its charging infrastructure would see guaranteed utilization. The move comes after Revel successfully piloted the model in late February with 100 Revel drivers and has since brought on 100 more. The question of flexibility has been at the heart of the debate over whether ride-hail drivers should be classified as gig workers or employees. That said, Rubinson says Revel’s ride-hail portion of the business recently hit gross margin positivity and was tracking to be EBITDA positive by the end of the year. In 2022, Frank Reig, Revel’s CEO, told TechCrunch that over 90% of its charging hub utilization came from Revel’s own ride-hail fleet.

“Duolingo Embraces AI: Cuts 10% of Contractor Workforce”

In This Photo Illustration The Duolingo Logo Seen Displayed
Duolingo is the latest company to cite AI as a reason for job cuts. The company confirmed it cut around 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023, as it turns to AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 to streamline content production and translations. “The reason [Duolingo] gave is that AI can come up with content and translations, alternative translations, and pretty much anything else translators did. Duolingo also has its own proprietary AI model, “Birdbrain” that personalizes lesson content. Understandably, both the contractors and Duolingo users were upset by the job cuts, as it adds to the ever-growing fear that AI will replace human workers.