Will Apple Reinvent the iPhone? & AI is Reportedly Killing Entry-Level Jobs

0:00Tuesday on NBC, Jimmy Fallon and Bozma St John host the highly anticipated new competition show. I hired 10 creatives from all walks of life. They will be battling it out to see who can impress the world's biggest brands. This is a huge opportunity. This is the battle for the next big idea. This is not play play. We're spending millions of dollars. I'm so excited to embark on this adventure with all of you. Make the best idea win! On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. Series premiere Tuesday on NBC.

0:34Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, well, AI is officially taking people's jobs according to science. Then time to work on your musical riz. Spotify is adding the ability to send DMs. It's Wednesday, August 27th. Let's ride.

0:57So that's what living through the moon landing was like. Dang. Yesterday, around 1 p.m. Eastern, millennials had their Apollo 11 moment when Taylor Swift announced she was engaged to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelsey. In an Instagram post that's racked up 28 million likes and counting, Swift posted photos of the engagement with the caption, your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married, which producer Emily tells me is a reference to a recent song, So High School. Toby, even my group chats popped off right after this happened. When these two get married, it's going to be the closest thing to a royal wedding we Americans have ever seen.

1:34I'm just jealous to anyone who got to break the news to their office or to their group chat. You must have felt like Paul Revere. I've also been keeping an eye on the like count. The most liked Instagram of all time is Messi winning the World Cup at 74 million. Don't think this is going to get there, but you never know. Also, I pray for wedding planners because their job just got much more straightforward because whatever the vibe or aesthetic of Taylor Swift's wedding is going to be, that is going to be the vibe and aesthetic for every wedding going forward. Finally, genuinely hilarious that they curated this whole fairy tale scenescape with the flowers and the song, but then his Instagram handle is just kill a trav.

2:14And now a word from our sponsor, LinkedIn ads. I have a note prepared from our producer. Oh man, what did Emily have to say? She said, you and I have to stop talking so much about Premier League before the show to make sure we're fully prepared. Emily might have a point there. She knows how harmful wasting time is just like LinkedIn ads does and probably doesn't want to hear us yap about that Liverpool Newcastle game. LinkedIn ads can help you stop wasting time too, plus stop wasting money, resources, and effort like 71 % of B2B ads and find the right audience for your brand. They've got over 130 million decision makers and 10 million C-suite execs, aka the people you need for your business on their platform.

2:53You can target by job title, industry, company, and more. So try LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you a$100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it for yourself. Just go to linkedin.com slash MBD. That's linkedin.com slash MBD. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. Yesterday was the global release of Fed Wars episode two, The Central Bank Strikes Back. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom President Trump is attempting to remove from her role, said she would file a lawsuit against the White House in order to keep her job. President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, her lawyer said in a statement, adding his attempt to fire her based solely on a referral letter lacks any factual or legal basis.

3:37On Monday, Trump made the stunning move of telling Cook he was removing her from her role over allegations of mortgage fraud. She hasn't been charged with rondeering or convicted of a crime, but Trump thinks he has enough evidence to fire Cook for cause, which is the only way under law that he can boot her from her position. Under law, that's a phrase you are going to hear a lot more often now that this fight for the Federal Reserve moves into the legal realm. With Cook planning to sue, experts believe this clash will eventually make its way up to the Supreme Court, which has already heard many cases over Trump's ability to fire agency heads.

4:11At stake is only the global economic system. By design, the Federal Reserve is shielded by politics so it can make the best long-term decisions for the prosperity of the United States. And economists and business leaders across the political spectrum warn that political meddling could undermine the essence of America's economic success. The Financial Times has the context. The case of one Fed governor is not that significant on its own, but it is no exaggeration to say that the Fed's independence and role in the international financial system could hang on Cook's fate and experience with U.S. judges.

4:44Whew! This case could definitely become a landmark precedent on the legal side as well that dives into what removal powers does the president have, specifically when it comes to the central bank. For cause is just the phrase that you're going to hear so much because that is generally meant to mean gross misconduct that happens during your tenure as a Fed governor, not necessarily stuff you did pre-appointment. So that is where a lot of the nitty gritty is going to lie is, hey, if Cook did something illegal before she was installed in this role, will that mean that she can be kicked out of her role currently right now?

5:21So I do think that is when they say that this is on a collision course to the Supreme Court. There will be some clarity around how much presidential removal powers President Trump actually has. And the Supreme Court has weighed in on this type of thing before, not specifically a Fed governor, because just to repeat, this is unprecedented. This has never happened ever in the history of the Federal Reserve since it was created in 1913 that a president has tried to remove a Fed governor. But the Supreme Court has weighed in on presidents trying to fire other agency heads before. And there is a 90 year precedent that allows Congress to make it hard to for president for the executive branch to fire the heads of independent agencies.

6:01In 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, tried to fire a commissioner of the FTC, William Humphrey. Humphrey sued to keep his position similar to what is going on here with Lisa Cook. And the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the firing had been unlawful. Fast forward to this past few months, Trump has tried to fire a lot of agency heads, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And he's been far more successful, far more successful than FDR was. The Supreme Court has been sympathetic to the executive branch's powers to fire independent agency heads. However, during those opinions where he's firing all these other guys and he's letting them, the Supreme Court is letting him.

6:43They said that the Fed may warrant special protection. And they said they you can't fire a Fed governor without cause. Yeah, Fed is definitely kind of its own separate thing where it's been alluded to, but there's never been a distinct ruling around that. The market reaction yesterday was pretty fascinating because we did see yields for long-term government bonds spike a little bit as investors say, like, hey, this is another sign that the central bank's independence is eroding. So we did see those yields rise. But then stocks kind of held steady, which was very interesting. The market basically shrugged it off because they're not necessarily super sensitive to this stuff happening in the near term.

7:23If long term, it looks like we will see more policy interference down the road. That is where the market gets a little bit nervy. So potentially, it's just wait and see mode right now from the market itself. You might have expected a little bit of a sell-off yesterday because this is on its surface an attack on Fed independence. But it is just kind of remarkable right now how stocks basically just took it in stride and said, if it starts to look worse going forward, then we might see more of a sell off. I mean, some economists were like this. You know, I mean, some economists said that there should have been a sell off.

7:56Eric Winograd is the chief economist at Alliance Bernstein, compared it to a frog boiling in water and that, you know, there should be a little more nerves going on in the markets. But overall, they're just looking forward to NVIDIA's earnings later today, and that will drive the market far more than what's happening over at the Fed. After a string of disappointing releases, Apple is making sure its next iPhones will fall far from the tree. Mark your calendars for September 9th. Yesterday, Apple announced plans to hold its annual fall product launch next month, where the company will roll out its iPhone 17 lineup.

8:28The tagline on the invite is awe-dropping, but the first product announcement is likely not going to drop any awes. The new standard iPhone 17 will, shocker, look similar to the iPhone 16, but with a larger display and camera improvements, according to Bloomberg. But the star of the show is likely to be the iPhone Air, Apple's first wholly new design in years, which will come in about 2mm slimmer than current models with just one rear camera and a shorter battery life. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, Mark Gurman from Bloomberg said that an ambitious three-year plan for an iPhone makeover is also likely to be announced at the event.

9:05Following the iPhone Air, Apple plans to introduce its first foldable phone, similar to Samsung's design resembling a foldable tablet. Then in 2027, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, Apple will drop a curved glass iPhone 20, breaking away from the square slabs that have come to define smartphones as we know it. Neil, Apple has come under a ton of fire for a glacial pace of innovation when it comes to the iPhone. Using a phone now feels a lot like using a phone from five years ago. We'll see if this event can bring back some of that wow factor. They seem to be ramping up their hardware innovation, and it's a zig where other tech companies have zagged.

9:43Last week, Google had this big release of its Pixel 10. They really didn't focus much on the hardware itself. They focused more on all the AI features that were contained within the Android operating system. That was the main focus of that presentation. Looks like Apple is going in the other direction because their AI push, whether it's with Siri or broader Apple intelligence features, has largely disappointed investors and consumers. So now they are going in on just making really cool gadgets again, hopefully, because you're right. We haven't seen a lot of whiz-bang innovations in the past few years.

10:16So Apple is just leaning into what it does best, which is make really cool hardware. We'll see whether consumers bite. This brings me back to 2014. Around that time, Samsung was rolling out these big screen phones, and Apple was kind of lagging behind when it comes to how much screen real estate they had. They released the iPhone 6, which at the time was a very large phone, and Apple ended up winning that particular battle. But now it feels like we're running back that exact same rivalry once more in 2025 when it comes to foldable phones. And right now, Samsung has finally started to make some inroads, maybe on the backs of its foldable phone innovation.

10:53Its market share in the U.S. jumped from 23 % to 31 % in the second quarter of 2025. Apple's market share slipped from 56 % to 49%. So it is still the number one dog, but you are right. There hasn't been that moment of lining up for the new iPhone. Most people buy a new iPhone because their old one got scratched or broke, not because it is this massive new form factor that gets people super excited. So two new form factors in the next three years, that is something that could bring kind of that pizzazz back to Apple's hardware. And investors are also coming back to this stock. I mean, going into August, Apple stock was down 17 % for the year.

11:31There was a whole load of problems going on at Apple from the lack of AI innovation to regulatory crackdowns to a rising competition in China. But then Tim Cook goes to the Oval Office with the, you know, the golden trophy, hands it to President Trump, kisses the Ring says they're going to spend$100 billion more on manufacturing in the United States. That was early August, August 6th. And then since then, the stock is up nearly 9 % on pace for its best month since June 2024. And then Apple also reported really solid earnings, showing that maybe some of that hangover was wearing off. It reported its fastest quarterly revenue growth in more than three years and was rebounding in the China market.

12:14So maybe Apple is getting its mojo back heading into this big September 9th iPhone unveil. Ever since ChatGPT was launched nearly three years ago, fears have grown that generative AI would replace human jobs. Turns out those fears were warranted. A first-of-its-kind study from Stanford Economist published yesterday found the first clear evidence that AI was eliminating job prospects. Until now, the automation scare had been anecdotal. This research brings the receipts. And here they are. For younger workers in industries vulnerable to AI automation, like software development and customer service, there's been a 16 % decline in employment from late 2022 through the middle of this year.

12:55The researchers looked at data on millions of workers through ADP, the largest payroll provider in the U.S., for a much granular picture on employment than you could find anywhere else. So the bottom line, if you're a recent college grad and you're trying to get a position as an entry level coder, receptionist, translator or customer service rep, your job hunt has been made harder because of the chat GPT revolution. We've never been able to say that concretely before. But that's not the entire bottom line because AI isn't impacting everyone the same. The study found that more experienced workers, even those in vulnerable industries, are getting better opportunities thanks to AI, while industries where humans are empowered to work in tandem with AI are also seeing higher headcount.

13:37The lead Stanford researcher, Eric Brnofsson, was pretty shocked at his findings. There's definitely evidence that AI is beginning to have a big effect, he said. This is the fastest, broadest change that I've seen buckle up. Yeah, poor younger workers. AI is very similar to new grads in the sense that it does really well with so-and-so book knowledge, but doesn't have the experience, doesn't have the so-called tacit knowledge that older workers have. Older workers just have the tricks of the trade that you don't learn in school. You just learn by being on the job for a while. AI doesn't have that either.

14:12So you have a little bit of this paradox brewing in the early job market. If AI is wiping out all these junior roles, how do the newer workers ever gain that tacit knowledge that you need that makes older workers invaluable? So it's almost like a very slippery slope that we're just at the precipice at. And this was the first time that we actually got some numbers behind what that precipice actually looks like. And it's another big scare for the computer science profession, the computer science major, which has grown exponentially in the past few decades. Everyone, you know, you've heard, learn to code, learn to code.

14:45Everyone said that during the 2010s, but now you're seeing that computer science majors don't have great job prospects. Thanks to AI, there was this viral video of this woman who just graduated from Purdue University, and she has been job hunting, and she said, I just graduated with a computer science degree, and the only company that has called me for an interview is Chipotle. And that jives with, I think it was in Neil's numbers a few months back, that among college grads aged 22 to 27, computer science and computer engineering majors have some of the highest unemployment rates of any industry, 6.1 % and 7.5 % respectively.

15:23That is more than double the unemployment rate for biology and art history grads at just 3%. So if you, you know, I think a lot of people going into college will certainly reassess whether the computer science major is the one for them. One term I think you're going to hear a lot more going forward that Brynolfsson kind of brought up is a centaur job where these jobs where humans and AI can kind of combine strength. I don't know who is who in the centaur analogy there, but you need that human judgment. You need that task knowledge that older workers have. Paired with AI's ability to just rip things at scale, rip things very efficiently, they found that centaur jobs often outperform one or the other.

16:03So you will see some industries kind of go towards this. let's augment our human workers and then you'll see other industries go towards let's replace our human workers and bernaluson is arguing for the former saying hey they are better together let's just have these centaurs running around and just being more productive overall now let's take a quick break and talk about spotify dms this message is a paid partnership with apple card i'm a person who really appreciates simplicity and when it comes to credit card rewards the simpler the better That's one of the many reasons I have an Apple Card.

16:38The rewards are super straightforward. I earn up to 3 % daily cash back on my everyday purchases. There are no points to calculate, no limits or deadlines. Plus, it's super easy to access my card and make payments from the wallet app of my iPhone. If that sounds like the kind of simplicity you want in a credit card, apply for Apple Card in the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Brands. Terms and more at applecard.com. One of the hardest parts about B2B marketing is reaching the right audience. I remember when I bought a coffee maker and then months later kept getting served ads for a coffee maker after I'd already cozied up to my new one.

17:17Don't send your marketing materials into the ether where they might end up in front of the wrong audience or an audience who already has a coffee maker. When you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over one billion professionals. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, company revenue. You get the picture. LinkedIn will even give you an extra$250 credit on your next campaign, so you can try it for yourself. Just go to linkedin.com slash mbd to learn more. That's linkedin.com slash mbd. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.

17:51Smooth operators just got another entry point in which they can slide into the DMs, Spotify. The music streaming app introduced a direct messaging feature yesterday that lets you send a new Taylor Swift albums or the latest episode of MBD to your friends without leaving the app. The feature is not available in the US yet and only to users aged 16 years and older, but will eventually roll out to premium and free subscribers in the next few weeks. You can see Spotify's thinking here. These types of messages were already being sent outside of Spotify in texts, WhatsApp chats, and on social media.

18:24Now it wants to consolidate and augment those content wrecks under its own umbrella. not just anyone can message you only people you've already interacted with on spotify through things like jams blends or collaborative playlists will be able to shoot you a dm and if someone is being creepy or sending you way too many benson boone songs you have all the same messaging controls other social apps afford you like accepting and rejecting messages blocking users or opting out entirely still neil not gonna lie it's gonna feel a little weird messaging someone on spotify at first, but you can totally see how it can make the app stickier and deepen its cultural heft if it finds a willing audience.

19:03Yeah, Spotify really hasn't done a lot of social elements in the past. You were able to follow people, look at what they listen to, and I've used that because there's some people who have amazing music taste that are making amazing playlists, and the ability to follow them and see what they're listening to has been huge, but now they've introduced this DM feature, and previously they introduced a feature like comments on podcasts, which we scroll through and see what people are saying about our particular podcast. And the VP of podcast product also said that eventually they might introduce the idea of comments on music tracks.

19:36And I know when I go listen to a song on YouTube, the first thing I do is look at the comments or honestly watch any video is look at the comments. So introducing more of these social features could keep more people on the Spotify app, which is exactly the whole point of this? I think this is fascinating because it mirrors a very common tech trajectory that we've seen where a platform just starts out as a tool. Spotify was just a tool for listening to music. And then they bolt on this communication feature once they achieve scale. The question is, do users really want another inbox to check? Do they really want another vector for communication?

20:08Or do they just want to listen in private to the songs? Because music is a pretty intimate thing that you're doing. But the other thing I can't help but think about is that all these other accidental dating apps that have arisen. I'm thinking about Strava, where it was a run tracking app, then they added DMs, and now you see someone running on the West Side Highway, maybe your Strava runs sync up and you shoot them a message. LinkedIn has turned into from a job networking app to almost a dating app in some places. And now you have Spotify, where people can spy on each other's playlists, like you said, and then shoot them a DM.

20:44Letterboxd is another one. Yelp was another one. It's just fascinating to see how you have shared interests and then it leads to some low friction communication. And suddenly these apps that were one thing become almost a more effective dating app. So I'm wondering if Spotify is going to go down a similar path. Maybe because, I mean, sharing music interests is a very important thing for a lot of people. It is a love language, as you say. Let's check in on Spotify's business. It's doing pretty good in its most recent earnings report. It said that subscriber numbers were up 12 % in the past year to nearly$300 million.

21:21Its stock price is also up over 100 % in the last year. And that got a boost on a single day of 10 % when execs came out and said that we are going to raise prices again. Remember, the first time that Spotify ever raised prices was two years ago. And now they're saying they're going to jack up some prices in various markets. Investors love to hear that they think that Spotify has a lot of pricing powers. That's another lever that Spotify can pull to grow this already growing business. Now let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. If at first you don't succeed, try again nine more times.

21:54After a string of disappointing launches, SpaceX's gargantuan Starship rocket finally made it all the way up to space and then all the way back down to Earth without blowing up last night. It was Elon Musk's 10th attempt at getting the rocket into orbit, which he hopes will eventually take people to Mars. The mission will also have both Musk and NASA breathing a sigh of relief, as the U.S. Space Agency is counting on Starship to act as a lander to put astronauts on the moon in the next few years. It wasn't a perfect mission. One booster engine shut down unexpectedly. Some portions of the spacecraft burnt up upon re-entry, and once the craft did its vertical flip and simulated a landing, it toppled over into the Indian Ocean and eventually exploded, but it went a whole lot better than missions 7, 8, and 9, which all ended in mid-air fireballs.

22:40Neil, progress. To borrow a sports cliche, this was a must-win game. 7, 8, and 9 were really bad launches. 10 was much better, so you're right. NASA, SpaceX, headquarters, they're all breathing a huge sigh of relief because NASA is relying on Starship to take astronauts to the moon. That's currently scheduled for late 2027, but that's just not going to happen. It's going to be 2028 or later. What they want Starship to do is take the astronauts from lunar orbit down to the lunar surface itself. And that's going to require multiple Starships, not just one. And this is already the biggest rocket that's ever been made in human history because there's going to need to be refueling as it leaves orbit to get to the moon.

23:25So you need all these starships coming together and refueling each other so it can reach the moon. It seems like a very intricate thing for what is an extremely powerful and complicated machine. At the same time, China is also aiming to go to the moon before 2030. So the race is on. The U.S. government just took a 10 % stake in Intel, and it looks like that could just be the first round of drinks in an upcoming private market bender. Yesterday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the Intel playbook could be repeated in other sectors, specifically defense contractors like Lockheed. There's a monstrous discussion about defense, Lutnick told CNBC, adding that Lockheed, which gets the bulk of its revenue from the Pentagon, is, quote, basically an arm of the U.S.

24:06government. President Trump also implied that the government will take stakes in other private companies, saying earlier this week he would make similar deals, quote, all day long. I mean, it is very funny that he just outright said it, that Lockheed makes about 97 % of the revenue from the U.S. government, so why not take a stake in it? And I mean, this comment just gives more fuel to the fire that Trump is looking to make similar deals in other companies. He thinks that the U.S. government should participate in the U.S. taxpayers should participate in the upside of these companies, not necessarily just hand out government contracts to them.