"And, they continued layoffs they started"

FTFY. Layoffs have been for how long, and where? For centuries, and everywhere.

Which is the bot-driven sales. Followed by commission sales agents enabling the process.

I may never see another major act in person. Just don't want to participate in the fraud.

More and more I'm encountering AI as customer service agents (both online and by telephone).
I have not had a singe good experience with any of them. They provide wordy generic useless responses.
The worst experience was with Tesla Insurance. They randomly sent me a message that they were cancelling my insurance because they didn't have a home address for me (in spite of them being able to see my car parked at home every night for the past three years). I thought I could just call them to straighten out the confusion. AI agent was useless and said I had to talk to a real person. I spent hours a day over a week and never got to talk to a person. I ended up just cancelling and getting a new (cheaper) insurance company.

Are they using Musk's Nazi-Grok AI?

Tesla has been collecting extensive data on all their models since the beginning.
They used to do it without charge (how generous of them) but now charge about $10/month if you want extra data services (maps, etc.). Even if you don't pay they still collect data on the car, location, etc.

Interesting to see all the deniers here.
China is ahead in robotics, automobiles, and manufacturing of all kinds.
The US is "great" at borrowing money and buying stuff from the rest of the world.
Oh yes, don't forget our military bases all over the world. All these do is cost money and make people hate the US.
The US has lost the plot. It's not military power, the winning ticket is economic power and China has it.

I know a few who would take the extra money and see a quack doctor. I did, for instance. Good enough results to recommend them.

Good to see that the "professionals" are looking up from their greedy profits and starting to realize that the Jenga tower is tottering.

Hotels often drop prices when they have unsold rooms and it is getting close to the date. They would rather have a lower income than let the room expire without any income.
That's why I usually book rooms at the last minute when traveling. I find I can get a better deal. Also, the risk that I would have to cancel so close to the date is small.
As far as availability goes, it's rare for an area to be fully booked and I've always been able to find a suitable room.

It (bitcoin mining) is the same efficiency as a heating coil. 100% of the electricity input is converted to heat.
NG heaters convert 60% to 90% of the potential energy to heat.
Heat pumps move up to 400% of the input energy to useful heat.

As far as bitcoin mining goes (I am only vaguely familiar with how it works) I think that you get "credit" for each number computed whether or not it is the solution so that when the actual solution emerges from the pool, everyone who contributed gets a share of the "coin". So yes, you can make money with a small bitcoin miner but probably not enough to pay for the electricity.

China's CO2 emissions have plateaued and dropped over the past 18 months.
If China can do it, so can the rest of the world; especially the "developing" world since they can bypass fossil fuels and go straight to solar and wind.
Pakistan is a notable early example.
(The US, I fear, will be relegated to third world energy status due to ignorance.)

Not necessarily.
China tends to use AI for real world problems in science, manufacturing and engineering where it has proven utility.
The US tends to use AI for slop to attract "views" and sell stuff (mostly from China).
See the difference?

Look at DeepSeek as an example of China's thinking.

Your primary banking card can be 'hacked' without a device, sort of. Give it to your restaurant server, and it is out there. Forbid they take a moment and scrape it.

Stuff it into a reader somewhere. Forbid it is actually the reader covered by a shim.

Read it off to someone to pay a bill. You may never know who that is.

There is no perfect security.

A person has to be pretty stupid to blindly follow all these steps.

US auto manufacturers count a car as sold when it is delivered to a dealer.
Currently there is a glut of new cars and dealers are sending them to auctions as used.
The US economy is going down the tubes and taking autos with it.