Read this Thursday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (11) – 05/11/2023 – Market

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Bard in 180 countries, not Brazil

At its annual conference for programmers, Google announced a package of news about AI (artificial intelligence) to try to counter criticism that it missed the boat of this technology to rival Microsoft, financier of OpenAI, of ChatGPT.

Among the novelties is the launch of its Bard chatbot in 180 countries and territories. Brazil, however, is not among them. The nations of the European Union were also left out.

• The text generator, which was available for testing in the US and UK since March 21, understands more than 100 languages, including Portuguese.

• It even manages to generate programming codes in more than 20 languages ​​and formulas for Google spreadsheets, according to the company.

Other AI news announced by Google:

• Gmail: will receive the “help me to write” function, which will allow you to compose emails with a generative AI platform, similar to ChatGPT. Docs will also have a text helper.

• Google Photos: will have the “magic editor”, which will use AI to allow for cropping, collages and color and brightness adjustment, as well as moving image elements and even shifting the frame of the photograph.

• Google Maps: an immersive map with images from Google Streetview. It will be possible to anticipate routes in a three-dimensional scenario. The experience includes indicators of air quality and weather conditions.

• PaLM2: Improved chatbot engine over LaMDA, which was used in Bard. The tool received the new AI this Wednesday, as well as Docs.

• Google Lens: AI will allow the generation of subtitles from image analysis. It will be possible to identify dog ​​breeds and point them out in the text, for example.

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AI Creates Beer Commercial – The Result Is Scary

If you’re worried about AI stealing your job, this news might come as a relief – especially if your profession is linked to video commercials.

The British producer Private Island, which already had Nike and Adobe as clients, released last week a fictional advertisement for a beer created entirely by artificial intelligence.

The result is frightening. There are beer glasses turning into giant cans, people’s faces transforming during the video and columns of fire appearing out of nowhere. All this in the setting of a typical American barbecue.

Which explains: the video says more about the slow-paced evolution of AI-powered video creation tools than the potential of the technology itself.

• Another obstacle is the computational requirement to run these video tools, which ends up making the process much more expensive, writes the Arstechnica website.

• According to the portal, the platform used to create the advertisement may have been the Runaway Gen-2, which creates short videos from written commands.

• The producer’s job was to put together the excerpts, add a soundtrack and sound effects.

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Share buybacks break record

Publicly held companies have never repurchased as many shares as they did in 2022, the year of stock market devaluation around the world.

The companies spent $1.31 trillion (R$ 6.48 trillion) to go to the market and buy its shares, up 22% compared to 2021, according to data gathered by manager Janus Henderson.

Understand: Share buybacks can be a way for companies to remunerate their shareholders, just as it happens with the distribution of dividends.

• If the company decides to cancel the repurchased shares, the shareholders end up with a larger share of the company without spending more for it.

• When dividends are distributed, they will earn more proportionately, because the pie will be divided among fewer shares.

Companies can still use the strategy to remunerate their executives or leave the shares bought in cash for a future acquisition opportunity.

The value of share repurchases has tripled in the last ten years, while dividends have increased by 54% in the period, according to data provided by the manager.

Which explains: The reasons that lead companies to buy back their shares on the market are varied, but the announcement of such a move is usually well regarded by investors.

• The signal that passes is that the company considers that its share is undervalued in relation to what it considers fair, indicating an appreciation potential.

• Unlike dividends, whose distribution is taxed in most countries –Brazil is one of the exceptions–, share buybacks do not have to pay tax.

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R$ 1 billion settlement in wage inequality lawsuit

Goldman Sachs will pay $215 million (R$1.06 billion) to end a class action lawsuit alleging that the bank paid lower wages and limited promotions to women because of their gender.

The lawsuit, which was filed by two former executives in 2010, currently covers around 2,800 female associates and vice presidents who worked at the institution’s units.

• Also under the agreement, the bank will have to hire independent experts to carry out analysis on performance evaluations and the gender pay gap.

Goldman set a 2020 goal for 40% of vice presidents to be women by 2025. Of Goldman’s current partners and managing directors, 29% are women.

As shown In a March issue of the Folha Carreiras newsletter, the McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2022 study, conducted with 333 US institutions, found that 1 in 4 leaders was a woman, 1 in 20 of which was a black woman.

In her most recent column, economist Cecília Machado defended the wage transparency policy at companies as a way to reduce the pay gap between men and women.