Billionaire investor says AI will help bring four-day workweek

Billionaire investor Steve Cohen said Wednesday the increase of artificial intelligence (AI) technology will help bring forward the four-day workweek.

“My belief is a four-day workweek is coming,” Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Cohen said that “between the advent of AI” and generally hearing “people are just not as productive on Fridays,” the shorter workweek feels inevitable.

“I just think it’s an eventuality. When it happens, it’s hard to know, but that should fit into a theme of more leisure,” he said.

That theory in part fueled his decision to invest in golf startup league TGL in 2023, he said.

But as long as markets remain open, Cohen said he doesn’t anticipate letting his traders take off on Fridays.

“Forgetting us, I think the vast majority of people will get an opportunity, I think at some point, to have a three-day weekend,” he said.

Last month, progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill that would establish a standard four-day workweek in the U.S. without reduction in pay.

Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) co-sponsored the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) introduced a companion bill in the House.

Republicans panned the proposal.

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