Author: Reporter

Imagine a customer service center that speaks your language, no matter what it is. Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects. So an Alorica representative who speaks only Spanish can field a complaint about a balky printer or an incorrect bank statement from a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. Alorica wouldn’t need to hire a rep who speaks Cantonese. Such is the power of AI. And, potentially, the threat: Perhaps companies...

The amount of the powerful climate-changing gas methane spilling out of oil and gas equipment, coal mines, and landfills globally is nowhere near fully documented and what is known is “only scratching the surface” according to the CEO of one the companies that tracks methane with its own satellites. Rather than improving, the methane emissions problem is worsening according to Stephane Germain of GHGSat. “The past year, we’ve detected more emissions than ever before,” he said. Since late 2023, GHGSat satellites detected about 20,000 sites worldwide that qualify as super-emitters, or sites hemorrhaging at 220 pounds of methane per...

Between finding openings, sending out your resume and interviewing, looking for a job is tough. Now a growing trend of scammers impersonating recruiters is making it even harder. In the last year, job scams have been on the rise, according to Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps consumers when their identities are compromised. Because most job seekers turn to online platforms for employment, scammers impersonate companies and recruiters to trick people into giving them money or personal information. “We’ve really seen tremendous growth in job scams,” Velasquez said. “I think...

New retirees frequently rhapsodize about the joys of tossing their alarm clocks into the trash and filling their days with whatever activities they find gratifying. But if they are honest, most new retirees find the financial aspect of the retirement transition to be a little jarring. While retirees are often counseled to estimate that they will spend 75% to 80% of their working incomes in retirement, a paper by David Blanchett, formerly of Morningstar and now at PGIM, found that higher-income, higher-saving households may need just 60%, or even less, of their preretirement income during retirement, while lower-earning, lower-saving...

Connor Tomasko grew up wary of credit cards. As she taught herself more about managing money, she realized that many people also have bad habits when it comes to payment apps. Tomasko, 31, a freelance software consultant in Chicago, understands why people appreciate the ease of the apps, which typically only require you to know someone’s username in order to send money. But she realized that keeping money in the apps could be risky and means losing out on the interest from a high-yield savings account. She now immediately transfers any payments out of the apps and encourages friends...