Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, March 24th. I'm Belle Lin for The Wall Street Journal. Young people are no strangers to career angst, and the possibilities can seem endless and daunting. Plus, they're often given well-meaning advice about setting themselves up for success. But now, as AI takes center stage, such long-held career advice is becoming irrelevant.
We discuss how some young people are aiming to forge their own paths to AI-proof their careers. Then behold the Tesla semi truck. After years of delays, it's finally due for its official debut this summer. In early testing, truckers are already raving about it. We break down what's behind the love fest.
But first, AI is coming for our jobs, and young people who are at the beginning of their careers are feeling that pressure more than ever. A recent Harvard study found 59% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 see AI as a threat to their job prospects, with college graduates sharing particular concern.
We spoke with WSJ reporter Teping Chen about how some students and young professionals are navigating these big shifts in the job market, some by leaning toward and others completely away from AI. Teping, how are some young people trying to really mitigate the negative impact of AI on their careers?
It really varies. We spoke to students and recent grads who are doing everything from changing their majors to adding minors that they think will be less impacted by AI to, in some cases, Pretty dramatic shifts.
One worker we spoke to who had been in insurance actually quit his job and is now learning to be a firefighter because he thinks that you're always going to need actual people there on the ground.
And another, for example, college student who had been majoring in computer science and really intent on a career in tech, who now is, as of last year, dropped out and is in trade school studying to be an electrician.
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Chapter 2: What are young people's concerns about AI and their careers?
And it's great. And so there's dissonance there. There's also, too, a feeling of, in some cases, that this is not a technology I want to work with, that I actually really vehemently oppose its existence and think that if I'm using it, I'm just going to be training it to make it better. And really, this is not something I want to be a part of.
There was one woman I spoke to who she's in games and animation. This is a career goal of hers that she's had for a really long time and feels like She in no way wants to use this technology, sees it as a cop-out, and at the same time knows this is a technology that's already causing disruption in her industry and realistically is probably going to hurt her job prospects.
And that's why she's adding on a minor in marketing, thinking that that will help broaden some of her opportunities. But it's really tough. She feels like she doesn't really have many choices in a difficult situation.
That was WSJ reporter Teping Chen. How do you think AI is affecting early career prospects? If you're a listener on Spotify, leave us a comment with your thoughts. Coming up, truckers are a notoriously hard to please set of drivers, but the new Tesla semi truck is already winning them over. Are they in it for the long haul? We'll get into it after the break.
Truckers weren't always enamored with Tesla's new semi-truck. But now, after years of delays, it's set to debut this summer. And some truck drivers say they're smitten with the Tesla-made battery electric truck. WSJ reporter Paul Berger joins our Katie Dayton to discuss this burgeoning love affair.
So, Paul, you cover logistics and spend a lot of your time talking to truckers. When it was announced that Tesla would be getting into their field, what was the initial reaction among the profession?
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Chapter 3: What features make the Tesla Semi appealing to truckers?
The Tesla truck was actually announced about a decade ago, and in those days, many truckers viewed battery electric trucks with the similar kind of skepticism that they have for the trucks today. The battery electric trucks are, or they say, are too expensive, don't go far enough between charging, and take too long to charge.
And how is rolling out a truck compared to rolling out a car for Tesla?
Chapter 4: What challenges did Tesla face in launching the Semi truck?
What are some of the additional obstacles that they need to think about when providing vehicles for a profession rather than drivers?
I actually think one of the biggest obstacles is battery size. The Tesla truck, the Semi, has to be capable of carrying loads of tens of thousands of pounds. But at the same time, tractor trailers have weight limits, so the battery also has to be light enough so that it doesn't preclude the trucker from carrying all sorts of different kinds of loads.
Then, of course, it needs to be able to travel hundreds of miles on a single charge, and you want it to charge quickly because in trucking, time is money. The Semi answers many of those questions far better than other battery electric trucks, but it's still basically not as good as a diesel truck.
So a few pilot models are out on the roads right now before mass production begins for these trucks at Tesla. What are the reviews looking like so far?
Truckers absolutely love them. When you talk to the drivers, they say a lot of the same things that you'll hear when they've been testing out other battery electric trucks. The trucks are quieter. You've gotten rid of the engine noise. They're smoother, so you're not shuddering, juddering backwards and forwards as you're changing gears.
And when they go home at the end of the day, they don't stink of diesel. So all of those things they love. One of the differences with the Semi is that unlike other battery electric trucks that have basically been based on diesel trucks and then converted to battery technology, the Semi has been designed from the ground up.
And the most striking thing when you see the truck is that the driver is actually placed in the center of the cab, which affords the driver a much greater field of view and eliminates many of the blind spots that a driver normally has. Then on top of that, there's the technology.
The drivers that I spoke to talked about the fact that the technology shows them every single object around the tractor and the trailer. And remember, these things can be hauling trailers that are 53 foot long.
One of the drivers in particular, he recounted how he was trying to get to Tesla's charging station, took a wrong turn and ended up going down a road where basically he got stuck on a bend because the 40-foot container that he was hauling wouldn't make it all the way around because of an obstacle.
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Chapter 5: How are young professionals adapting to the AI job market?
And he said that right there and then he realized that the technology is going to change working life for the drivers that are able to drive the semi.
And how does the cost of a Tesla truck stack up against a regular diesel truck?
Tesla has not publicly announced the cost of the semi truck. Diesel trucks generally sell for about $150,000. Some of the people I spoke to told me that the Tesla semi, there are two models with different ranges and different prices, but that they're basically available for $300,000 or less.
But just to set that in perspective, most other battery electric heavy duty trucks cost $400,000 or $450,000. So- The Semi will be less expensive than other battery electric trucks, but twice as expensive as a diesel.
Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world. Why does he want to invest in trucking? Why was this a good move for Tesla?
I think it's fair to say that when the semi truck was first announced in those days, Tesla was really oriented towards sustainability and trucks are the most heavily polluting vehicles on the road and also, you know, manufacturing and selling vehicles.
Of course, in the last 10 years, Tesla has pivoted and is much more focused now on artificial intelligence, robotics, and things like the cyber cab. You know, it doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to imagine that one day the Semi might remove the driver and might become an autonomous truck. You could imagine Tesla selling the Semi as a service, but I think it's too soon to tell.
That was WSJ reporter Paul Berger speaking with our Katie Dayton. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. If you're a listener on Spotify, be sure to leave us a comment. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Katie Ferguson. Logging off, I'm Belle Lin for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back later this morning with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.
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