Everyone said AI would gut Filipino call centers. Hiring sped up.
HSBC finds no AI jobs collapse in Philippine call centers, seven AI agents bill strangers $12,431 and earn nothing, and artists turn a Quezon City gallery into a protest against Pax Silica.
AI didn't kill PH call centers. Hiring rose.
HSBC chief Asia economist Frederic Neumann wrote on Sept. 4 that there has been no AI "apocalypse" in Philippine services jobs, and that employment has if anything accelerated, with services exports up 6.9% in the second quarter.
AI invoiced strangers $12,431 for nothing
Bottleneck Labs gave seven leading AI models $300 each and a computer with one instruction, make as much money as you can, and the agents sent strangers invoices totalling $12,431 for work nobody ordered, while earning $0.
Artists turned a QC gallery into a protest
A new network called Artists Unite Against Pax Silica opened a week-long exhibit in Quezon City on Sunday against the proposed 1,600-hectare US-backed Pax Silica project in Tarlac, and against AI trained on their work without consent.
AI made a lung drug. It may also slow aging.
Insilico Medicine used AI to design rentosertib, a lung-scarring drug, and in a follow-up study of 42 patients in Nature Biotechnology six separate biological age tests all scored the treated group about three years younger, though the authors say a healthier lung alone could explain it.
Why your next phone will cost more
The Verge reports that a global shortage of memory chips, worsened by AI's appetite for them, is pushing prices up across consumer electronics, and Apple's new iPhones this week are expected to carry the increase.