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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. A woman who's been driving for Uber for more than a decade explains how she's looking for new work as her pay drops.
Tomorrow's the big launch of First Trade, our new markets newsletter led by Joe Ciolli. Subscribe here!
On the agenda today:
* Can this AI necklace really help solve the loneliness crisis?
* Why married woman are finding more money means more problems.
* The 36 leaders reporting to the CEO of the world's most valuable company.
* AWS is losing its grip on the startup community that's been its bread and butter.
But first: There's a new gig in town.
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This week's dispatch
Side-hustle shakeup
The gig economy is facing a reckoning.
Two stories this past week caught my eye. Uber unveiled a new way for its drivers to earn money. No, not by giving rides, but by helping train the ride-sharing company's AI models instead.
On the same day, Waymo announced a partnership with DoorDash to test driverless grocery and meal deliveries.
Both moves point toward the same future: one where the very workers who built the gig economy may soon find themselves training the technology that replaces them.
Uber's new program allows drivers to earn cash by completing microtasks, such as taking photos and uploading audio clips, that aim to improve the company's AI systems. For drivers, it's a way to diversify income. For Uber, it's a way to accelerate its automated future.
There's an irony here. By helping Uber strengthen its AI, drivers could be accelerating the very driverless world they fear.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said human drivers won't vanish overnight. Still, he has warned that the eventual decline of driving jobs poses a significant societal challenge to the gig economy. Uber already offers autonomous rides in Waymo vehicles in Atlanta and Austin, and plans to expand.
Meanwhile, Waymo is rolling out its pilot partnership with DoorDash, starting in Phoenix. DashMart stores are expected to be the first retailer on the platform.
BI reported that customers may be asked to pay a delivery charge -- just like they would for typical DoorDash orders -- but there will be no need to tip the driver because, well, there's no driver.
All of this is ripe fodder for a virtual event Business Insider is hosting on Wednesday, where we'll explore how AI and automation are reshaping the self-driving revolution. I'll be speaking with automotive innovators, AI experts, and urban mobility leaders.