Sign in Subscribe

The Underdog Files

Ten Minutes or You're Fired: Inside the Algorithm Running the Gig Economy

No manager ever has to fire you. The app just stops giving you shifts.

Read next

A white-iced cake shaped like a bank tower, cut open to reveal empty office desks inside

Barclays Cuts 5,000 Jobs and Calls AI the Icing

Barclays said Thursday it will cut about 5,000 jobs, roughly 5% of its global workforce, by the end of the year. About 1,000 are already gone. The bank reported a third-quarter pre-tax profit of £2.3 billion, up 12%. And when asked about artificial intelligence, its

A dim open-plan office at dusk where a worker at a desk is half dissolving into circuit lines, storm clouds over the skyline outside

Goldman Says AI Could Displace One in 11 Workers. The Layoffs Are Waiting for a Recession.

Goldman Sachs published a note on Thursday saying that up to 9% of workers in developed economies could be displaced by AI, roughly one in eleven when slower hiring is counted. The number is not the news. The timing is: the bank says the damage is likely to wait for

Your Insurance Company Uses an Algorithm to Deny Claims. Here's the Algorithm.

Your Insurance Company Uses an Algorithm to Deny Claims. Here's the Algorithm.

The doctor spent 1.2 seconds reviewing your claim. That's not an estimate. That's the documented average, pulled from internal Cigna records obtained by ProPublica. In the time it takes to blink twice, a physician employed by your insurance company decided whether you needed medical care.