Tech
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Employee revolt once forced Google to back off on military contracts. But, in the wake of a new Pentagon AI contract, their leverage appears limited
Google inks a major contract to help the Pentagon use AI. Hundreds of employees sign an open letter opposing the deal. The company’s leadership initially digs in its heels. Several employees resign in protest. As the employee revolt builds, Google’s management reverses course and opts not to renew the lucrative military relationship. That was 2018.
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A decade after the ‘Godfather of AI’ said radiologists were obsolete, their salaries are up to $571K and demand is growing fast
In 2016, the “Godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, stood onstage at a machine learning conference in Toronto and declared AI would soon kill the radiology profession. At the time, he said people should even stop training new radiologists because it was “completely obvious” that within five years (or 10 at most) AI would do a
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Chinese court rules firms can’t lay off workers on AI grounds
A Chinese court ruled that companies cannot terminate employees just to replace them with artificial intelligence systems, as authorities juggle the need to stabilize the domestic labor market with a global race to develop AI technologies. The court decided that a tech firm in eastern China had illegally fired one of its workers after he
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Sam Altman says the quiet part out loud, confirming some companies are ‘AI washing’ by blaming unrelated layoffs on the technology
As debate continues over AI’s true impact on the labor force, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said some companies are engaging in “AI washing” when it comes to layoffs, or falsely attributing workforce reductions to the technology’s impact. “I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but there’s some AI washing where people are blaming AI
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Unionized workers form alliance with rich tech giants on AI data centers, pushing back on local opposition and redrawing political lines
Building trades unions — long fashioned as the voice of the American worker — are now intertwined with the richest companies in the world as they create America’s artificial intelligence economy. Unionized workers are employed on a huge number of massive data center projects and scrambling to recruit new apprentices to feed the explosive demand.
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Apple raises Mac Mini’s starting price to $799 after AI frenzy drains supply
Apple Inc. raised the starting price of its Mac mini desktop to $799 from $599, adjusting to inventory shortages driven by AI demand and the tight supply of processors. The company is effectively increasing the price by removing the entry-level configuration, a model that includes an M4 processor and 256 gigabytes of storage. The computer
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Disney’s new CEO is exploring a ‘super app’ for theme park tickets, movies and more
Walt Disney Co. senior executives are discussing how to unify the company’s disparate mobile apps and turn its streaming service into the first stop for all things Disney, a place where users can book park tickets, buy merchandise, play games and watch movies, according to people familiar with the matter. Disney’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro,
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Jensen Huang says some CEOs have a ‘God complex’ when it comes to AI apocalypse warnings, which can create shortages of critical workers
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been pushing back against the popular narrative that AI will wipe out huge swaths of the workforce, but he also placed some blame on overly confident CEOs who assume they know everything. In an interview this week with the Special Competitive Studies Project, he said that while people warning about
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Big Tech is shelling out up to $1 million for new hires who will never have to write a line of code
Some of the highest-paid tech workers now will never have to write a line of code. And it’s not because their work is being done by AI: Tech companies are shelling out high six-figure salaries for senior communications roles. In February, Anthropic posted a job for a head of product communications with a listed $400,000
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A Mark Cuban-backed vegan cheese company trained AI to scrutinize cardboard boxes. It’s saved $400,000
A Mark Cuban-backed cheese company found an unlikely place to cut costs using AI: the cardboard boxes carrying its vegan wheels. Austin-based Rebel Cheese maintains a lean team. But after a busy holiday season, CEO Kirsten Maitland realized the firm’s shipping partners were overcharging $250,000, by her estimate. Baffled by the sheer cost of these