Blog

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Beer’s qualities as a “social lubricant” must play an important role in the debate about the harms of alcohol, the boss of Heineken has said.

Dolf van den Brink said that “in this time of loneliness and a mental health epidemic”, beer’s role in bringing people together was “important to make part of the public debate”.

Public health bodies are hardening their stance against alcohol, prompting the industry to talk up the non-health benefits of drinking such as socialising and to question new research into the dangers of moderate consumption. 

“Beer is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, consumer goods category,” van den Brink told the Financial Times, pointing to early evidence of collective beer drinking in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. 

Earlier this year the outgoing US surgeon general said alcoholic beverages should carry cancer warning labels, while the World Health Organization has been stepping up a campaign against moderate drinking.

The Heineken chief said that while the discussion about the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on health was legitimate, it lacked nuance. 

“We do believe that it’s not always reported in a balanced way, telling the full picture, because the relationship between alcohol and health is complex,” van den Brink said, while stressing that the debate needed to start by emphasising the harmful use of alcohol.

“There is a legitimate debate in society now about the effect of moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, on health. And again, we believe that needs to be a balanced and nuanced discussion.”

Socialising had been at the core of Heineken’s marketing for decades and was “part of the essence of the product”, he said.

Other brewers have also extolled the health benefits of their brews, with the “Guinness is good for you” slogan used for decades to promote the Irish stout.

Heineken, Carlsberg and ABInbev have launched non-alcoholic versions of their beers in a bid to keep drinkers who want to moderate their consumption loyal to their brands. 

On Thursday the Dutch brewer announced a five-year plan to get consumers to buy more beer and boost efficiency at the company, which, like other alcoholic drinks producers, has been hit by weaker consumer demand. 

Van den Brink also warned there would be more brewery closures, but “not at a large scale”. 

Investors have soured on Heineken after two years of weak performance and a string of earnings misses, with shares falling by a fifth from highs in 2023. 

At an investor presentation in Seville on Thursday, the brewer said 80 per cent of its investment would go towards Amstel, Desperados, Moretti, Tiger and Heineken, with a quarter of its 350 brands getting none at all.

Porsche AG suffered its first quarterly loss as a listed company, with the luxury-car manufacturer taking a €3.1 billion ($3.6 billion) hit this year from scaling back its electric ambitions and US tariffs.

The 911 maker reported a €966 million operating loss in the three months through September, after delaying some of its electric-vehicle plans and scrapping a program to build its own batteries. Slumping demand in China has also taken a toll.

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.

Cody Luongo, a media consultant in Charleston, South Carolina, recently became a full-time freelancer after losing his job. In this new phase of his professional life, Luongo told Business Insider that AI has become his “constant companion,” helping him do everything from drafting press releases to refining client pitches.

“AI accelerates my work enough that I can do exponentially more for my clients with their allotted budgets,” he said.

Luongo is far from the only freelancer using AI technology to leverage their skills and services. While integrating AI can be a smart and lucrative choice on an individual level, its impacts on the wider gig economy are decidedly more mixed.

Don’t Miss:

A 2023 study by Washington University found that AI tools actually caused a decline in the amount of freelance work available and how much companies were willing to pay for that work. The study found that after ChatGPT’s release in 2022 the number of writing-related freelance jobs declined by 2% and monthly earnings declined by 5.2.%. For image-related workers, the drops were even sharper– AI tools led to a 3.7% decline in jobs and a 9.4% decrease in monthly earnings.

“AI definitely lowers the barrier to entry, so it makes many activities accessible for more people,” Washington University assistant marketing professor Xiang Hui, who worked on the study, told BI. While that may sound like a positive thing, especially for those looking to break into the gig economy, Hui’s research shows it’s actually not.

Even the most experienced freelancers aren’t safe from AI’s influence, Hui says.

“The drop in earnings, if anything, is actually larger for high-quality freelancers in comparison with low-quality freelancers,” he told BI. “High quality doesn’t really protect freelancers.”

Trending: The ‘ChatGPT of Marketing’ Just Opened a $0.81/Share Round — 10,000+ Investors Are Already In

Hui attributes this to the fact that less experienced freelancers are able to punch up with AI. These new freelancers use the technology to refine their output until it’s “good enough,” and then push out passable work at a lower price point. While there’s still a clear difference between this “good enough” work and truly excellent work, the difference is negligible, and more experienced gig workers lose their competitive edge.

There are also worries that AI is stifling genuine creativity, something freelancers are often relied on to provide in a world of homogenized output.

“AI can raise the baseline of creativity, but fewer people are having breakthroughs. You need breakthroughs for innovation,” Shane Schweitzer, assistant professor of management and organizational development at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, told BI.

See Also: Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund Just Backed This Farmland Manager — And Accredited Investors Can Join the Same Fund

Erin Hatton, a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, agrees. “[AI is] being adopted so broadly that it’s, at least eventually, going to prevent people from getting and using key skills,” she told BI.

Overall, experts who spoke to BI agree that AI is beneficial in that it’s lifted the baseline standard of gig work, increasing overall quality. However, they also note that AI has made it much less likely for gig workers to produce something of truly outstanding quality.

In short, AI is raising the floor and lowering the ceiling. “[AI is] not leveling the playing field necessarily,” Schweitzer says. “It’s just creating slightly more competence.”

Read Next: GM-Backed EnergyX Is Solving the Lithium Supply Crisis — Invest Before They Scale Global Production

Image: Shutterstock

This article ‘AI Definitely Lowers The Barrier For Entry,’ Gig Economy Workers Wrestle With How To Proceed As The Technology Infiltrates Their Industries originally appeared on Benzinga.com