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American seniors who have received Social Security overpayments may be in for a nasty surprise after the Trump administration announced the reversal of a Biden-era policy. Specifically, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will revert back to withholding up to 100% of an individuals benefit check in an attempt to claw back overpayments. The changes under Biden had capped that withholding at 10%, so for seniors who may have received overpayments and grown accustomed to only having their monthly benefits reduced by a relatively slight amount, the adjustment could blow a hole in their monthly budgets. Announcing the reverted policy on Friday, the SSA said it will achieve $7 billion in savings over the next 10 years. The change affects overpayments made from March 27 onward, meaning overpayments made before that won’t be impacted. We have the significant responsibility to be good stewards of the trust funds for the American people, said Lee Dudek, SSA’s acting commissioner, in a statement. It is our duty to revise the overpayment repayment policy back to full withholding, as it was during the Obama administration and first Trump administration, to properly safeguard taxpayer funds. Why do SS overpayments happen? Social Security overpayments happen for a number of reasons, including beneficiaries misreporting their income or forgetting to update a change in their living situation or marital status. However, the SSA sometimes simply makes mistakes, as CBS reported last year, meaning an overpayment may be through no fault of the person receiving the benefits. With the Social Security Administration reverting to the original overpayment policy, its possible that some Social Security recipients could see their benefits reduced to nothingthat is, until theyve effectively paid back any overpayments theyd received in full. That could put many seniors in a challenging position in the months ahead. The SSA says it will notify people later this month about the new withholding rate. The withholding rate change applies to new overpayments related to Social Security benefits,” reads the statement from the SSA. “The withholding rate for current beneficiaries with an overpayment before March 27 will not change and no action is required. The withholding rate for Supplemental Security Income [SSI] overpayments remains 10 percent.” Further, it warns that any overpayments made after March 27 will be put into the full recovery rate immediately. As for those who cant afford to see their entire benefit zapped due to an overpayment by the SSA, the agency says to contact the SSA to see what can be done.
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E-Commerce
When artificial intelligence-backed tractors became available to vineyards, Tom Gamble wanted to be an early adopter. He knew there would be a learning curve, but Gamble decided the technology was worth figuring out.The third-generation farmer bought one autonomous tractor. He plans on deploying its self-driving feature this spring and is currently using the tractor’s AI sensor to map his Napa Valley vineyard. As it learns each row, the tractor will know where to go once it is used autonomously. The AI within the machine will then process the data it collects and help Gamble make better-informed decisions about his crops what he calls “precision farming.”“It’s not going to completely replace the human element of putting your boot into the vineyard, and that’s one of my favorite things to do,” he said. “But it’s going to be able to allow you to work more smartly, more intelligently and in the end, make better decisions under less fatigue.”Gamble said he anticipates using the tech as much as possible because of “economic, air quality and regulatory imperatives.” Autonomous tractors, he said, could help lower his fuel use and cut back on pollution.As AI continues to grow, experts say that the wine industry is proof that businesses can integrate the technology efficiently to supplement labor without displacing a workforce. New agricultural tech like AI can help farmers to cut back on waste, and to run more efficient and sustainable vineyards by monitoring water use and helping determine when and where to use products like fertilizers or pest control. AI-backed tractors and irrigation systems, farmer say, can minimize water use by analyzing soil or vines, while also helping farmers to manage acres of vineyards by providing more accurate data on the health of a crop or what a season’s yield will be.Other facets of the wine industry have also started adopting the tech, from using generative AI to create custom wine labels to turning to ChatGPT to develop, label and price an entire bottle.“I don’t see anybody losing their job, because I think that a tractor operator’s skills are going to increase and as a result, and maybe they’re overseeing a small fleet of these machines that are out there, and they’ll be compensated as a result of their increased skill level,” he said.Farmers, Gamble said, are always evolving. There were fears when the tractor replaced horses and mules pulling plows, but that technology “proved itself” just like AI farming tech will, he said, adding that adopting any new tech always takes time.Companies like John Deere have started using the AI that wine farmers are beginning to adopt. The agricultural giant uses “Smart Apply” technology on tractors, for example, helping growers apply material for crop retention by using sensors and algorithms to sense foliage on grape canopies, said Sean Sundberg, business integration manager at John Deere.The tractors that use that tech then only spray “where there are grapes or leaves or whatnot so that it doesn’t spray material unnecessarily,” he said. Last year, the company announced a project with Sonoma County Winegrowers to use tech to help wine grape growers maximize their yield.Tyler Klick, partner at Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, said his company has started automating irrigation valves at the vineyards it helps manage. The valves send an alert in the event of a leak and will automatically shut off if they notice an “excessive” water flow rate.“That valve is actually starting to learn typical water use,” Klick said. “It’ll learn how much water is used before the production starts to fall off.”Klick said each valve costs roughly $600, plus $150 per acre each year to subscribe to the service.“Our job, viticulture, is to adjust our operations to the climatic conditions we’re dealt,” Klick said. “I can see AI helping us with finite conditions.”Angelo A. Camillo, a professor of wine business at Sonoma State University, said that despite excitement over AI in the wine industry, some smaller vineyards are more skeptical about their ability to use the technology. Small, family-owned operations, which Camillo said account for about 80% of the wine business in America, are slowly disappearing many don’t have the money to invest in AI, he said. A robotic arm that helps put together pallets of wine, for example, can cost as much as $150,000, he said.“For small wineries, there’s a question mark, which is the investment. Then there’s the education. Who’s going to work with all of these AI applications? Where is the training?” he said.There are also potential challenges with scalability, Camillo added. Drones, for example, could be useful for smaller vineyards that could use AI to target specific crops that have a bug problem, he said it would be much harder to operate 100 drones in a 1,000 acre vineyard while also employing the IT workers who understand the tech.“I don’t think a person can manage 40 drones as a swarm of drones,” he said. “So there’s a constraint for the operators to adopt certain things.”However, AI is particularly good at tracking a crop’s health including how the plant itself is doing and whether it’s growing enough leaves while also monitoring grapes to aid in yield projections, said Mason Earles, an assistant professor who leads the Plant AI and Biophysics Lab at UC Davis.Diseases or viruses can sneak up and destroy entire vineyards, Earles said, calling it an “elephant in the room” across the wine industry. The process of replanting a vineyard and getting it to produce well takes at least five years, he said. AI can help growers determine which virus is affecting their plants, he said, and whether they should rip out some crops immediately to avoid losing their entire vineyard.Earles, who is also cofounder of the AI-powered farm management platform Scout, said his company uses AI to process thousands of images in hours and extract data quickly something that would be difficult by hand in large vineyards that span hundreds of acres. Scout’s AI platform then counts and measures the number of grape clusters as early as when a plant is beginning to flower in order to forecast what a yield will be.The sooner vintners know how much yield to expect, the better they can “dial in” their wine making process, he added.“Predicting what yields you’re going to have at the end of the season, no one is that good at it right now,” he said. “But it’s really important because it determines how much labor contract you’re going to need and the supplies you’ll need for making wine.”Earles doesn’t think the budding use of AI in vineyards is “freaking farmers out.” Rather, he anticipates that AI will be used more frequently to help with difficult field labor and to discern problems in vineyards that farmers need help with.“They’ve seen people trying to sell them tech for decades. It’s hard to farm; it’s unpredictable compared to most other jobs,” he said. “The walking and counting, I think people would have said a long time ago, ‘I would happily let a machine take over.'” Sarah Parvini, AP technology writer
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E-Commerce
Cultural relevance has never been more important or desired by brands and marketers than it is right now. As fragmented as our media landscape has become, a brand with cultural relevance is better at attracting our attention and, importantly, keeping it. Why? Because we care. We talk to our friends and family about it. We engage in online and IRL communities about it. So if a brand can genuinely embed itself in that experience, or make that experience better, more interesting, helpful, or entertaining, then its really earning our attention. A new report from global ad agency network TBWA takes a deep dive into 39 cultural shifts happening around the world, and categorizes them for marketers to learn more and potentially tap into. The goal of the report is to arm brands with the necessary information to make better decisions when it comes to how they show up in culture. The agency calls these shifts edges, which it defines as global shifts with the scale and longevity to help brands turn cultural blur into business opportunities. The shifts in this years report range from generative AI to sustainability, and personal development to survivalism. TBWAs global chief strategy officer Jen Costello says one thing that stuck out from this years research was the idea of culture rot, in which content and culture are confused for one another. The former is just regurgitating whats already out there, while the latter has more influence and impact. For Costello, too many brands are focusing on content over actual culture. Brands and creators are churning out this endless stream of stuff, much of which isnt actually landing, making a difference, or shifting how people are actually living in the real world, says Costello. New shifts Most brands are chasing cultural relevance by mimicking the latest buzzword or online micro-trend. TBWAs report argues that this endless stream of what it calls copy-and-paste content is contributing to the culture rot. The challenge is for brands to stop trying to please the algorithm and start using cultural insights to actively contribute to the human experience. There’s nothing inherently wrong about toying around in the language of the internet, says Costello. Its quick, it’s fun, and it typically doesn’t make a huge dent one way or another. The bigger deal is the longer term view. We think culture is the biggest opportunity for brands, but it can also be the biggest threat if you don’t harness it correctly. Three new shifts found in this years report are what the agency calls Eco-Realism, Maturity Paradox, and Transparency Receipts. Advertising buzzwords? Maybe, but they’re also rooted in real human behavior. Eco-Realism is about how environmental action plans are taking a turn for the practical. It comes as a growing number of corporations scale back their previous sustainability targets, and common practices like carbon offsetting and tree planting are exposed as not-so-effective distractions. The report predicts that vague ambitions will be better replaced by more affordable, scalable, and readily available solutions. Maturity Paradox is about the decoupling of age and maturity. The report anticipates that behaviors and expectations tied to certain age groups will no longer be relevant and impact how brands target and design for different generations. Psychographics over demographics. Transparency Receipts, meanwhile, are about how supply chain transparency is gaining traction as more shoppers are demanding a peek behind the curtain. This is being met by better traceability with technologies like blockchain and RFID tags, and upcoming laws like the Europes Digital Product Passport Regulations. The report advises brands to proactively provide clear proof of a products social and environmental impact. It was surprising to hear about these new shifts, particularly on the environment and supply chain transparency, as companies have significantly turned the volume dial way down in talking about these issues. Costello says that its not that these issues have become less important to consumers, but that our BS detectors were being set off much too frequently. Id say eco-realism and transparency receipts are almost direct reactions to the bullshit, she says. People are no longer impressed with the flashy buzzwords or one-off sustainability stunts that are made for Instagram. Their trust has been diminished. Now people want to be taken behind the scenes more. They want to be given the facts. There’s a pragmatism or a practicality coming into place now. Shift impact Reports are only helpful if the information is actually useful and utilized in practice. Costello points to work like Levi’s and McDonald’s as examples of how her agency has used culture in client work for maximum impact. Last year, the agency worked with Levis to remake a classic ad, this time starring Beyoncé. Bey starred in an updated version of the 1985 ad Laundrette, tying it into her award-winning album Cowboy Carter, which included a track called Leviis Jeans. In Japan, Gen Z makes up 60% of McDonalds workforce. But applications were steadily decreasing. The agency found Gen Z disliked being forced to smile as McDonalds employees. So they created a campaign that included an original song with the artist ano, who is known for not smiling, and revitalized the brands recruitment. It increased job applicants by 115%. I want to see more brands become rabbit holes of inspiration, fun, and experience for people, rather than just seeking it out, says Costello. I want to see them choosing paths and sticking with it. I want to see them building around fandom for obsessive fans.
Category:
E-Commerce
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