Searching for rare coins in our backyards might end up being the best bet for many of us trying to earn a living, given the rise of AI. More on the real-world impact ChatGPT is having on jobs in today’s big story.

In today’s edition:

• Leaked Google pay data shows how much thousands of employees make.
• Everything you need to know about Goldman Sachs’ bummer of an earnings report.
• The tech bros and Wall Streeters supporting RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign.

A victim of ChatGPT

For the past eight months, since OpenAI’s chatbot first graced us with its presence, ominous predictions like that have been uttered about every job under the sun.

Whether it’s financial analysts or teachers, doctors or technologists, ChatGPT has everyone on edge. Not even God can save your job from artificial intelligence, as one Colorado couple had their wedding officiated by the chatbot.

And yet, despite all the doom and gloom, it’s hard to get too worked up about the threat ChatGPT poses. Sure, by one count nearly 4,000 people lost their jobs in May because of AI. But a random number in a report doesn’t necessarily feel real.

Well, Emily Hanley is a very real person who lost her very real job because of ChatGPT.

Emily, who is a writer and stand-up comedian, spent years working as a freelance copywriter until her assignments dried up as clients outsourced her work to ChatGPT.

Emily documented the experience, including her three-month quest to find a new job. Now she’s serving samples of sparkling water at grocery stores to keep the lights on while she continues her search for a new job.

In the meantime, she says, she’s learned a valuable lesson: “If a robot can do your job for less, you better believe that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

Perhaps Emily feels like an obvious casualty in the rise of generative AI. Copywriting falls squarely in a chatbot’s sweet spot, so it was only a matter of time before those roles got eliminated.

“AI won’t be able to do <insert your role here>,” you might think.

But, as more money pours into AI, it seems clear the tech won’t stop at taking copywriting gigs.

Apple is said to be getting in on the chatbot action, another sign this isn’t a fly-by-night trend. And one of the world’s largest consulting firms is betting big on AI upending jobs.

KPMG is investing $2 billion as part of a new partnership with Microsoft focused on generative-AI tools.

“I think some of the legacy ways of doing business executing services are going to become obsolete,” Carl Carande, the US vice chair and global head of KPMG Advisory, told Insider.

Even if AI hasn’t figured out how to do your job, that doesn’t mean it won’t. The whole premise of generative AI is to constantly learn from its users. (Though whether it’s actually improving is up for debate, according to a recent report.)

Take Emily’s job search as an example. She applied for a role that ended up involving training an AI to learn how to be a better copywriter. (Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.)

So for those of you minting money using ChatGPT for your side hustles, be warned: You could be teaching your replacement.

Google, Goldman Sachs, & Tesla

• Google pay revealed via leaked data. A $605,000 bonus for software engineers. Base salary for enterprise direct sales of $377,000. We compiled a table to show pay data across a variety of US roles at Google based on an internal salary spreadsheet.
• Inside Goldman Sachs’ no-good, very-bad earnings report. The prestigious Wall Street bank reported its worst earnings in years, including a 58% drop in profit. From its real-estate write-downs to its return on equity, we breakdown some of the key numbers from the bank’s Q2 earnings.
• Investors identify the 16 most promising healthcare startups. Their picks include Leal Health (which provides data and resources for cancer patients), Entos (which uses AI to more quickly find candidates for medical treatments), and Ray Therapeutics (which hopes to cure blindness).
• Medicare could soon cover weight-loss drugs like Wegovy. The government health insurance doesn’t cover weight-loss drugs because of how expensive they are. But federal lawmakers just took a first step to change that.
• Teslas could keep getting cheaper. Elon Musk announced he’s prepared to keep slashing Tesla prices if the economy doesn’t stabilize — even if it comes at the cost of the company’s bottom line. Bonus: Tesla finally released photos of the Cybertruck production line.
• Some student-loan borrowers could suddenly face $500+ monthly payments. TransUnion, one of the major credit-reporting agencies, conducted a study on how much borrowers would pay. And the agency said people would most likely start spending less (i.e., the economy might take a hit) after getting this “payment shock.”
• Meet Robert F. Kennedy Jr., JFK’s conspiracist nephew. The lawyer is running against President Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries. He’s a longtime critic of vaccines — who even created an anti-vaccine group — and has promoted the theory that WiFi causes cancer. Some tech and Wall Street execs are lining up to support him.

Dow win streak, stocks rally, credit rejections

• The Dow can’t stop winning. Wednesday marked eight days in a row of gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It’s the longest winning streak for blue-chip stocks since September 2019.
• How to cash in on the stock-market rally. Seven top investment firms share recommendations for where you should put your money as the market continues to excel.   
• Good luck getting credit these days. A survey by the New York Federal Reserve found the overall rejection rate for credit applications saw a 21.8% year-over-year increase.

Stanford, Jason Aldean, & Death Valley

• Stanford University’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, is resigning. The prominent neuroscientist is stepping down after an investigation by the school’s student-run newspaper uncovered scientific papers he authored included manipulated data.
• Jason Aldean fights back against claims his song supports lynching. The country-music star says suggestions “Try That In A Small Town” has racial undertones are “meritless” and “dangerous.”
• Tourists pushed their bodies to extremes. Death Valley in California is considered the hottest place on earth. And photos show troves of people visiting it during a heat wave.

Traveling by train in style