The First Job AI Will Take Over

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s finally the weekend…but you’re an exec, you’re always working right?

I often get asked, “what jobs/careers will be most disrupted by AI in the coming years?” I have a general top 10 list, which I may share later…but for now, I can tell you with almost absolute certainty that traditional human translation services will be seriously challenged by machine translation.

Here’s a quick update related to it…

• New AI feature coming to Google Translate

  • The new “Ask a Follow-up” button provides action options like Formal, Casual, Simplify, Rephrase, and Regional Variants, allowing users to modify the tone and style of translations.

  • Users can also listen to the AI-adjusted translations, provide feedback, and receive additional cultural context.

Btw GPT is already very good at translating.

I want to emphasize that I’m not necessarily happy about this at all. I personally know people who have made a living as translators. While I do still believe that live translations will be handled by humans for some time…there is little doubt among professionals in the industry that the days of text-based translations are numbered.

The numbers:

• Wait a second…how expensive is GPT-4.5? (Pricing page). No wonder everyone is emphasizing that this model is more about creativity - to distract you from the high costs.

What else?

• Pika is on fire right now

  • I’m not saying Pika is the best at AI creative…what I mean is, this team just keeps releasing more updates. In February alone, they mentioned the following on their X account: Turbo Mode (3x faster videos for 7x fewer credits), Pikascenes, Pikadditions, Pikaffects, Pikamemes, Pika app (iOS app), Pikaswaps, Pika 2.2, and Pikaframes.

  • I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually get acquired by a social platform (Snapchat is the first one that pops in my mind).

• Meta plans to release standalone Meta AI app in effort to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT

  • Apparently, Meta wants to debut a standalone AI app during Q2 of this year and test a paid subscription for meta.ai (their chatbot). Keep in mind that a couple days ago they also announced that Instagram is considering launching a standalone app for its short-form vid feature, Reels…let’s just give it a 50/50 chance of happening, and an even lower chance of success if both of those get launched.

• Some interesting deal flow…

  • Unique, a Swiss AI platform for finance, raises $30M Series A led by DN Capital and CommerzVentures. Unique wants to power an agentic AI workforce for financial services (banking, insurance, and private equity) to improve workflows across research, compliance, KYC, and due diligence, etc.

  • VerAI Discoveries secures $24M Series B funding led by Insight Partners to grow its global asset portfolio of AI-based mineral discoveries. This one is cool…if you can use AI to identify concealed deposits of critical minerals with high levels of accuracy, then you can go on land, sea, space…basically it would be an extremely valuable company (this is an industry that’s going for “T” for trillions, not “B”).

  • HouseWhisper, an AI assistant and workflow efficiency solution for real estate agents founded by a number of ex-Zillow staffers, raised nearly $10 million in funding. They emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday. Apparently, it’s been in beta for ~8 months and used by 4,000 agents nationwide? Hold up…what about the buyers, can they use something like this to “auto negotiate” without going back and forth and playing the game of “final offer, take it or leave it”?

Thought starters:

• Using AI to simulate conversations with deceased individuals

• A Versatile AI System for Analyzing Series of Medical Images

• Dozens arrested in global hit against AI-generated child abuse

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

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