So you know that big G20 tech innovation summit that’s happening now? It’ s called the G20 Innovation Ministerial and it’s got a lot of global big machers getting together to discuss AI and related issues. They’ve got speakers like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg (remotely) and Sam Altman of OpenAI and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (physically) here to tell us why AI is so damn great and how we can all help make these guys even richer, or something like that.
More importantly, though, this event is happening in Chapel Hill, NC, within easy walking distance from my house. That’s unusual for a G20 summit! It’s being held at the Carolina Inn, a fancy and fussy old-school establishment that is more known for having a lawn full of people in Carolina blue sportcoats and dresses getting liquored up for college sports-related reasons or because they’re rich families that are having lunch with a kid either graduating or being put on academic probation at the University of North Carolina right behind them.
Anyway, because this thing is happening so close by, and it’s all about AI stuff that we’ve addressed here before that is definitely affecting the automotive space in significant ways, I figured I should at least try and see if I can get a press credential and perhaps, you know cover the story. So I applied! And then got this:
Aw, man, rejected! What the hell? I’m a real journalist! At least, close enough, right? I think the issue may have come from their demand that I provide proof of accreditation. Accreditation? For what? And by whom? And how? Who provides accreditation for automotive journalists? The ghost of Tom McCahill? I don’t have any relationship with a third party that provides any sort of accreditation, so I did the next best thing: I made one up.
I mean, that seems pretty official, right? The International Association of Independent Automotive Journalists seems like just the sort of staid, trustworthy organization I can trust. Maybe I shouldn’t have made that reference number the same number from that song.
I guess they weren’t buying it. I don’t see why fabricating some bullshit accreditation out of lies and pixels should disqualify me from getting a press pass, but, you know, whatever. I didn’t really want to listen to all those jackasses go on and on about how AI is unquestionably amazing and hear some ex recto predictions from Elon, like when he said this:
“This is one I would be willing to put serious money betting on, that there will be at least a billion robots in 10 years, and that those robots will be at least five times the output of a human. Meaning that a billion humanoid robots will be more productive than all humans combined.”
Yeah, okay, buddy. I’ll be excited to see those billion humanoid robots running around being productive as I hover by in my lovely new Tesla Roadster, which Elon said would be out in 2020, go from 0-60 in under a second, and hover or some shit.
You can watch the first day’s summit here if you want, which I suspect you don’t:
It also seems that a set of AI policies that advocate for minimal regulation were proposed at the summit, and are being called, collectively, the Carolina Principles, which I’m not crazy about. This all sort of feels like we’re putting mustard on our butts in preparation to be bitten on the ass by AI.
Let’s end this with some kind of tenuous automotive tie-in, at least. The G20 Innovation Ministerial, huh? You know who else had a G20 something? Infiniti!
Remember the G20? Infiniti had this car as their entry-level offering from around 1990 to 2002, over a couple generations of design. These weren’t bad cars, but not especially exciting, being essentially a re-badged Nissan Primera. You could get one with a manual and have a nice little premium sporty four door sedan, if you so chose! Who would stop you?
And, this car gave us one of the only opportunities to see actor Jonathan Price in a hard hat:
See, this is the kind of work that gets you an accreditation from the International Association of Independent Automotive Journalists. If you don’t believe me, look above: I have my certificate right here!
Can I have accreditation too? We can start our own Summit.
We could call it the Eagle Summit.
On the plus side, you’re in good company.
The Cunt of Mostly Crisco has blocked a number of journalists from the “other” G20 meetings. Blooomberg, the CBC, New York Times and Wall Street Journal have all had multiple reporters not issued credentials.
Fine. I’ll go start my own G20 Summit. With blackjack. And hookers.
Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of hookers at the actual G20. The blackjack sounds fun though.
Sounds like the same thing as the current one.
They are the ones missing out on all the good taillight bars in the Chapel Hill area. Really the only reason to invite you.
I once had a friend with an Infiniti G20t. It was a manual and was neither fast nor overly sporty, but it was still a decent car that was fun enough to toss around in a slow-car-fast kind of way. That said, the Acura 3.2 TL Type-S she moved up to when the G20t got totaled was much, much better.
Put on a nice suit, drive up to the security checkpoint in the 2CV and announce loudly in an OTT French accent that you’re here for “ze wheeeeelbarrow of shreeeemp”. What’s the worst that can happen?
Yeah, the fake accreditation was never going to pass muster with five different fonts used. Plus the Jenny Jenny.
I dunno, Century Gothic adds legitimacy to any document.
I dunno, I think for something official it’s actually too exciting. Documentation should threaten to put you to sleep with the merest of glances, Times Roman throughout except for possibly a semi-blackletter at the top. And it needs an IIIAJ logo on it. And some fictitious names of the Association President and V.P., maybe Donovan Lightfoot and Jenny Tutone. And a membership date. Also, I should stop overthinking this shit.
Henry Yunick, Director of Regulatory Review
Now you’ve got me thinking any press releases from the meeting should be in Comic Sans. Appropriate level of legitimacy, you know.
If there was ever a building that needed to be abruptly swallowed by a sink hole…
The earth has its revenge.
G20 Exec: Hey guys! Guess what I just bought? A replica of the first ever car, the Mercedes Benz Patent-Motorwagen! I can’t wait to start my own YouTube channel where I drive it every day and talk about it’s importance as the first ever motor car!
PR Guy: Here’s the latest list of press credential requests. I was just going to approve them…
G20 Exec: Let me take a quick look… JASON TORCHINSKY?!
A G20 exec would own an original Mercedes Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Replicas are for the unwashed masses and what the unwashed call “museums” but are known among the G20’s money people as tax shelters.
It’s original, but they definitely wouldn’t drive it, and they can’t spell YouTube.
The car sits in their air conditioned warehouse, where they never see it, but it shows up on a list of assets somewhere. These assets either appreciate for future auction, or they depreciate and are used to offset tax liability.
They’ve definitely forgotten they own it, but someone they pay remembers and tells them how classy and special they are.
I think you should get the Galpin Autozam from Monterey shipped in and just show up in it. You’ll draw enough of a crowd that you can nick someone’s credentials and walk in.
This! Someone has done some thinking
Run downstate, grab one of SWG’s fleet cars, and show up/crash the party in a Jaaaaaag. If it’s good enough for Clarkson, it could work for you?
David has 35 hours to drive the Autozam across the country CAN HE MAKE IT!!!
Oh man, now I’m craving the cheeseburger from the bar at the Carolina Inn – quite possibly one of the best cheeseburgers I’ve ever had. Thanks Torch.
They missed out on a wheel barrow full of shrimp.
Please, the Carolina Inn is a classy place that serves classy people classy food.
A wheelbarrow full of foie gras is much more fitting.
This rejection email is very similar to the many I receive after job applications in the last three months, so I feel your pain.
This economy has really been crap since 2008. It’s just gotten progressively worse to the point we are at now. My current engineering job that I’ve had for 5 years? That took 3 years and over 7,000 applications before I landed it. I had at the time 8 years experience and nothing but good relationships with previous employers.
I really need to figure out how to make money independent of an employer, because there’s no certainty that I will have an income in the future otherwise.
I feel this too. I was essentially unemployed (really just severely under employed) for 3.5 years after I graduated college and grad school. This was the middle of the last decade. During that time, I had an on-and-off job that was basically a favor for a friend of my parents, and for just a few months a “real job” where the boss was so abusive, I had to quit to protect my mental health. Neither paid enough for me to move out of my parents’ house. Then I got another “real job” that paid me slightly better, enough to start saving up to move out, but then that company went under due to mismanagement and I was laid off. I was really lucky that I was able to get another job that paid me fairly well a few months later, and I was finally able to move out of my parents’ house…at 28. I still have this job, and while it doesn’t pay super well, I make enough to live comfortably most of the time (living with my gf now who bought a condo helps). People keep telling me to apply for a better-paying job, but in my field, they’re just not out there. It’s even worse than it used to be due to the proliferation of AI, and it was already pretty bad.
“ I make enough to live comfortably most of the time (living with my gf now who bought a condo helps). “
This is a key factor that seems to be overlooked. It is a lot easier to make ends meet when costs are shared between 2 people. Rent / mortgage, utilities, food, insurance, etc. On the other hand people are getting married later and later and if media and some of my single friends are to believed many people in their 20’s have postponed dating or seriously looking for a partner until a long list of financial goals are met ….. which makes it harder to meet the financial goals
One of the reasons that my wife an I have done well (and others that I know) is that we got married early and never tried to live life as a single person. It also add security because one job loss doesn’t wipe out 100% of income. My wife and I moved in together at 21 and got married at 22.
Before my girlfriend and I moved in together, I was living on my own actually, with no roommates, for 3 years. Granted, I was living in a weird old basement apartment that was maybe 700 sq ft that had a mouse problem and reeked of cat piss (all the fumigating I did got rid of maybe 95% of the smell), but hey, it was $850 a month with utilities included. I’m aware I was extremely lucky to be paying that little in an area where the average rent was easily double that. My girlfriend and I were already dating when I moved there (she also had her own place, too small for two people), and my plan was to only live there a year or so before we moved in together, but this happened right at the beginning of 2020, and uh…plans got delayed, for various “2020” reasons.
You are very right about how much easier it is to share living costs between 2 or more people, and that younger people are postponing dating until they meet certain financial goals. I think there is a perception, at least among young men, that women won’t want them unless they’re already successful, with a good job, their own place, a good car, etc. And sure, there are some women who care a lot about all of that, but many don’t. Even I remember being on dating sites back when I was single, and I was always embarrassed to admit that I was still living with my parents at the time. But I quickly found out that a lot of women didn’t really care because they understood how hard it was to make enough to live on your own. They were doing it too! My gf was one of those women who didn’t mind, and that’s a big part of why we started dating. Now she has seen me go from living with my parents, to living alone, to living with her. As long as you actually have goals, I really don’t think too many women care if you’ve “made it” yet when you start dating.
The only time I’ve lived alone was my junior year of university. I rented a 320 sq ft studio apartment because it was cheaper than living in the dorms. It was a wake up call though when I added up the cost of rent, electricity (electric heat in Michigan), phone, internet.
I can’t say that I understand current dating at all as it has been 30 years now. I would suspect moving from meeting people in the real world before a date to matching with strangers online based on nothing more than a picture and profile might have something to do with some people thinking their life needs to be fully sorted before dating.
I thought the dating was how the sorting out was done. Sorting then dating seems backwards.
One of the nice things about living in NYC is that meeting people just happens all the time.
Yes, meeting people can happen all the time but how does that help a generation that won’t talk to someone in real life?
Kalshi!
It’s like the stock market. Or crypto currency. Or a casino. Or lottery tickets. Lots of “opportunity”, probably the best there is if you don’t already come from money.
Only one of those things represent opportunity – the stock market.
For someone that doesn’t come from money (like me) dollar cost averaging into an low cost ETF index like Vanguard’s VTI is the way to go or a target date fund. Put money in every paycheck, leave it alone, don’t freak out a sell when the market cost down. Don’t try to time the market. If a 401K is available use it and take the match.
For 20 years I was pretty much invested in an S&P 500 index fund but today 37% of the S&P 500 is in the top 8 companies and they are all tech companies. Nvidia 7.8%, Apple 6.8%, Alphabet 6%, Microsoft 5.7%, Amazon 3.9%, Broadcom, 2.5%, Meta 2.1%, Tesla 1.9%.
Today I’m in VTI, Vanguard’s total US stock index which is the 3500 largest US companies which is a less top heavy
The economy was crap in 2009. It took me 10 months to land a job after the company I worked for closed down at the end of 2008 and that was the first local job I’d seen posted. Since then my wife and I have each landed 2 jobs, her latest move was 5 years ago.
I’m sure location and field have a lot to do with in. We have always been open to relocating and have lived in 5 states in 25 years. I’m a mechanical engineer which is pretty flexible. She is a biomedical engineer.
“make money independent of an employer” is really easy.
Step 1) Have lots and lots of money.
Step 2) Investments and tax dodges.
What’s the problem? Just ask any of our glorious leaders that people seem to keep voting for. This is the best economy ever. Anyone not making money just isn’t trying and doesn’t deserve it. Clearly.
My field (data) is at risk with AI, not because it can replace me, but because CEOs are certain it can, at least till the next CEO comes around. The very bosnthat threw me under the bus got fired and replaced with an agent (I kid you not). On top of that I’m also trying to emigrate from my current country, so it has been extra frustrating…
Wait… HR departments actually got back to you?!?!?!
Of course! What do you think all this AI crap is for?
This is the PR department. It’s literally their only job.
To me that was the surprising part. For most of my working years HR departments simply ghosted anyone that didn’t make it to an interview and even after making it to an interview the odd were 50/50 on getting a dear John letter if you didn’t make the next round.
They all have the same software now, at least on my field (data engineering/analytics etc). The copy is usually very similar. 90% of the time they say “we decide to move with other candidates” and then immediately repost the role on LinkedIn and whatnot.
I’m sorry to hear that. FWIW (and it’s not worth much) at least you GET an email and not just crickets.
Oh, I get thousands of crickets, just so happen that those that respond are using the same HR system (comeet, greenhouse, workday etc). It is so clear that I can easily create a rule just for rejections (helps that I’m a damn good antifraud engineer, algorithms are my specialty. But I don’t even need my powers for this!)
Make sure to keep a spreadsheet of the outcomes handy for when people bring up the “STEM labor shortage”.
I actually had a spreadsheet (this is the gateway drug to everyone in data, after all). I just decided not to bother anymore. I still save on a directory a PDF of the job description and any file (custom cv, cover letter etc) so I can refer back to it, but so far after many many processes, I have only two or three that went to practical tests with any meaningful code.
As did I.
I found only about 3% of my applications (each one of which I put way too much time into) out of hundreds submitted for positions (my skills were seemingly tailor made for) even got a return call. It doesn’t sound like it’s gotten any better since. IMO That kind of thing is quite telling of the actual condition of the STEM labor market. As are:
Jobs posted despite an already having an anointed internal candidate. I’ve been that internal candidate a few times and was told that was the plan each time. Those phantom listings are part of the illusion of a shortage.
Jobs posted only to give the illusion of growth to investors. The mythical STEM shortage then becomes the reason those positions are unfilled rather than because the resumes are going straight into the trash, sorry, *candidate pool*.
Recruiters who post fake jobs to collect resumes. Then they use those resumes to bargain for contracts.
Entry level jobs with entry level pay that would only consider candidates that (1) would not only need no training but also (2) who would bring in ideas for new products on day one. That was one of the 3% callbacks I mentioned earlier. The owner wanted a well seasoned, highly experienced in industry employee for an entry level salary.
Employers who list positions solely to placate a terribly overworked staff. Example: A newly minted PhD in my lab applied to such a position when he heard about it from another graduate student who worked there. This was at what I understood to be the biggest private environmental testing lab in San Diego at the time
She had been complaining for years about the overwork and relief that the owner was FINALLY looking to hire more help. At the interview the owner put it bluntly: He expected 60+ hour weeks for a salary of $30k even with the PhD. Pretty sure that ment no overtime since the graduate student who worked there never mentioned getting overtime. This happened about 2003 in San Diego which even then was not a cheap place to live. It was clear the owner just wanted to tell his staff that he tried or luck out and find more ultra cheap labor willing to meet his ridiculous work schedule.
So keep your spreadsheet updated to show to anyone who makes the claim of a STEM labor shortage. Then ask to see what proof they have to support its existence. That usually shuts the shortage believers up REAL fast.
Now I also face the “you are overqualified”. Even when I explain I am aiming lower in order to emigrate, and plan to stick around (as my cv proves). I should’ve listened my friends back in Brazil and went for a career in drug dealing, corruption or football ( /s, for the love of God 🙂
“Overqualified” can certainly happen and seems to have gotten worse. I put that on academia more than industry though. They are even more committed to the STEM myth. Most professors I knew had never worked in industry and were completely clueless about what goes on there. Their business model depends on a high volume and what happens to that volume on the far side isn’t their problem.
Did they at least tell you that they will retain your candidate profile in their database and might inform you of openings that match your profile?
Yep. And of course I never hear anything else…
On a related note, Jason (or anyone else here with current high-school kids in their lives); has your son had to intentionally dumb down his writing for school so it doesn’t get flagged by the teacher’s AI-detection AI?
The worst rejection email I ever got said something along the lines of “This is to inform you that your application will be given no further consideration”.
Pretty sure a former coworker got me blacklisted from that company, as if that doesn’t imply “don’t ever bother applying here again” I don’t know what does.
It’s too bad, too, as I’d have been a great fit for what they were looking for. Oh well, he got there first, and I probably wouldn’t have cared for working with him again anyway.
And yes, if the opportunity ever presents itself, I’ll be returning the favor.
I got many, and some are dry as hell. Maybe this was just one of those. Think about it, unless the dipstick was directly in HR, “gossiping” about former workers isn’t a great career move anywhere.
This wasn’t a “we’re going another direction” type of thing after they’d looked through the applicants – I’d applied online over the weekend, and the email was sent by either close of business Monday or first thing Tuesday morning.
It wasn’t a large company, and given we’d worked together previously, I’m guessing HR reached out to him to get a read on me. Apparently whatever he said wasn’t very flattering.
They actually had two open positions that I’d applied for (one of which was a perfect fit), so I actually got to read that email twice that Tuesday morning. And, of course, have never bothered applying there again.
More likely HR forwarded the resume to the hiring manager who saw a common work history with our hero and a current employee. The employee said bad things and the hiring manager asked HR to send our hero a fuck off rejection.
Should all Autopian members descend on Chapel Hill, NC and stage a loud and mildly-respectable protest? I bet we can come up with some pretty fantastic protest signs.
I’m sure Jason will provide all of us quarter in his home. Maybe we can do a potluck. I’ll bring a flan.
I’ll get to work on some potato salad.
Be sure to leave it in the sun so the G20 members can enjoy it.
As they eat it you can tell them you made it with Sam and Ella’s mayonnaise, a local brand.
Goes great with the wheelbarrow of sun kissed discount shrimp.
I’ll start the chant.
WE WANT INTERESTING TAIL LIGHTS!! WE WANT INTERESTING TAIL LIGHTS!!
I can be there in 20 minutes.
Fukkem then, how about making your own G60 summit, with Golf(s)? Three times as cool! I bet they don’t even have golf at their stupid G20 summit..
And rent out the Biltmore for it, that’s like, way bigger than the Carolina Inn
If there no golf, that should keep at least one large pest away.
The moment I saw the accreditation number — even before seeing where you gave the joke away — I laughed out loud. My dog now thinks I’m losing it. Well played.
G20 Commercial:
Had it been an Infiniti Q45 Commercial, the crane would have lowered a tree with some rocks.
Had it been a VW Beetle commercial, the crane would have dropped the car on purpose.
Had it been a GM/Cadillac commercial, the crane would have accidentally dropped the car, then sold it to you anyway.
Had it been a Volvo commercial, the crane would have placed the car gently atop of a stack of Volvos.
Had it been a Lexus commercial – you’d have never felt or heard the car being placed on the ground from inside the car.
Had it been a Maybach commercial, the crane would have placed the car, within a glass box, on the deck of the QE2 to be brought to NYC.
Had it been a Ferrari commercial, the crane would have lifted the car higher out of reach until you bought a Luce.
Had it been a Mitsubishi commercial, the crane would have been the Mitsubishi.
Just drive the Chang Li onto the main speaking stage, they won’t stop you
I can attest to your being certifiable, if that would help.
They don’t want serious journalists, they want bootlickers and propagandists. So Fox News.
Newsmax as well
…botlickers, too.
botlickersandbootlickers is the URL of my upcoming fetish porn site.
Sounds spicy.
How can they say the IAIAJ isn’t a legitimate accrediting body? You’ve got their number on the wall.
I hope someone with a sense of humor put Altman and Musk in in the same green room, on the same panels, and in adjoining hotel rooms.
Zuck across the hall
As the kids say, “nightmare blunt rotation”
Cover it?
Why aren’t you HEADLINING it?!?
Excuse me Mr. Huang, you have been bumped for a talk called “The Bullshit of AI Tail Lights” by Jason Torchinsky
They must have talked to Jenny when they checked up on you. Jenny, I got your number, should have been your response.
Not in service, Jenny got rid of her landline years ago now.
I have never been a verifiable member of the press but is there a channel where you could appeal the initial rejection?