At the heart of the Big Tech meltdown: The end of the ultra-low interest era: Tech companies are currently grappling with the abrupt end of years of cheap money, which has dragged down their valuations as the financial realities of an aggressive monetary tightening cycle from the US Federal Reserve shifts the calculus on their operations and growth plans, the New York Times reports. “The whole tech industry of the last 15 years was built by cheap money,” Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Guidehouse Insights explains. Investors looking for strong returns began pushing their capital to Silicon Valley in the past 10 years, leading to unprecedentedly high valuations that made it easier for startups to raise funding, attract new customers, grow quickly, and boost their market shares. All of this, analysts tell the Gray Lady, essentially acted as replacements for organic growth — making the return to reality all the more painful. As interest rates began to increase as the Fed looks to tamp down inflation, the tech sector has “fallen into a kind of recession,” according to The Atlantic.

Even the biggest names in tech have not gotten by unscathed: The tech downturn has been marked by a bear market for tech stocks (in spite of their recent recovery), widespread hiring freezes, layoffs, underwhelming initial public offerings, and a steep decline in venture capital financing, the Atlantic reports. Tech giants are slashing jobs: 18k people were laid off at Amazon, 12k at Google, 11k at Facebook, 10k at Microsoft, 8k at Salesforce, 4k at Cisco and over 3k at Twitter. Tech valuations have also taken a hit. In 2019, Zillow’s valuation stood at USD 45 bn it has now plunged to USD 10 bn, according to the NY Times. Amazon’s stock market valuation has shed nearly USD 1 tn. Used car retailer Carvana’s valuation plummeted 98% from USD 80 bn to less than USD 1.5 bn.

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Will burnout being spotlighted by state leaders be enough to push policy action on the phenomenon? Last week, Jacinda Ardern made a surprise announcement that she would step down as New Zealand’s Prime Minister at the end of her current term, according to the BBC. During her time in office over the course of more than five years, Arden has guided her country through the wake of the nation's worst mass shooting, a volcanic eruption, and the covid-19 pandemic — and welcomed a new baby. While the 42-year-old never outright cited burnout as the reason for her resignation, she alluded to it in her speech announcing her resignation: “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” according to the Independent.

Ardern’s openness on the topic is seen by many as a decisive moment that could break the stigma around mental health and work, according to the BBC. Many hope that it will help redefine burnout as a serious disease, rather than a phenomenon that mostly affects millennials and overachievers. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines burnout as “physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward oneself and others” and the World Health Organization has declared burnout an occupational phenomenon.

But then again, this isn’t the first time a high-profile personality has spoken out about burnout: Businesswoman Arianna Huffington and athletes Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka, among others, have all publicly discussed the phenomenon. ­Experts, however, think that Arden will be able to bring about change given that she is both well-respected and regarded as relatable. On the flipside, some are concerned that Arden sharing her experience could pave the way for gender biases that women are not suited for leadership roles. “While I want to believe that Prime Minister Ardern’s honesty might further normalize conversations around mental health, I worry that this will in fact do the opposite and simply fuel bias against working mothers and their ascent to leadership roles,” an organizational behavior professor at Babson College told the BBC.

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The results are in: ChatGPT is charging its way into the corporate world: Nearly a third of white-collar employees in different industries — including banking, tech, and marketing — have tried using ChatGPT and other AI-based platforms and tools at work, according to a survey conducted by social media platform Fishbowl. While the rates of adoption vary across industries and generations, the general trend remains that there is “strong early adoption by professionals,” the survey notes.

Who’s using it the most, and for what? The spread in adoption rates across generations is rather small, with Gen Z respondents showing the “highest rate of adoption” at 29%, although they outpace Gen X by just one percentage point. Across industries, marketing and advertising professionals reported the highest adoption rate at 37%, followed by tech (35%), and consulting (30%). At the other end of the spectrum, only 15% of healthcare professionals and 16% of accounting employees reported using ChatGPT. “Many are using the technology to draft emails, generate ideas, write and troubleshoot bits of code and summarize research or meeting notes,” according to Bloomberg.

This data further proves that the AI tool has the potential to revolutionize several areas of work: The versatility of ChatGPT is revolutionizing the workplace as companies streamline their daily operations and enhance customer service by using the tool’s natural language processing, to rapidly draft emails, draft presentations, and fulfill other time-intensive functions. With that massive potential, the AI tool has drawn significant investor interest, including from Microsoft, which confirmed yesterday it made a “multiyear, multi-bn USD investment” in OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.