News/Leadership
High-low split: 75% of executives think AI is working, employees disagree
A new survey reveals a significant disconnect between executives and employees regarding AI implementation success, with nearly three-quarters of executives believing their generative AI approaches are strategic and successful, while less than half of employees agree. This gap threatens long-term AI adoption and organizational productivity, highlighting critical change management challenges that companies must address to realize AI's full potential. What you should know: The perception gap between leadership and workforce creates serious operational and security risks across organizations. Nearly 75% of executives surveyed by Writer, an AI software company, believe their companies' approach to generative AI is well-controlled and highly...
read Aug 8, 2025House of the Dragon actor releases horror game exposing Hollywood’s AI manipulation
Abubakar Salim, the House of the Dragon actor, has released Dead Take, a horror video game that directly critiques Hollywood's exploitation, corruption, and AI manipulation practices. The psychological thriller uses real-world footage and interactive storytelling to explore industry scandals while positioning itself as Salim's creative rebellion against what he calls the "horrific" entertainment machine. What you should know: Dead Take marks a dramatic shift from Salim's debut game, transforming from heartfelt storytelling to industry exposé. The game follows struggling actor Chase as he breaks into director Duke Cain's mansion searching for his missing friend Vinny. Players navigate room-by-room puzzles that...
read Aug 7, 2025Not adding up: AI models ace Math Olympiad but mathematicians aren’t buying the hype
OpenAI and Google DeepMind's latest AI models earned unofficial gold medals at this year's International Math Olympiad, solving five of six complex problems that challenged 110 high school students from around the world. While AI companies celebrated these results as breakthrough achievements, mathematicians remain skeptical about whether these successes translate to real mathematical research capabilities. Why mathematicians aren't impressed: The AI models' olympiad performance doesn't reflect the demands of professional mathematical research, where problems can take years or decades to solve rather than hours. Emily Riehl, a mathematics professor, notes that olympiad problems differ significantly from frontier mathematical research questions...
read Aug 7, 2025James Cameron warns AI weapons could trigger “Terminator”-style apocalypse
James Cameron has warned about the potential dangers of combining artificial intelligence with weapons systems, drawing parallels to his own "Terminator" franchise while promoting his upcoming book adaptation "Ghosts of Hiroshima." The Oscar-winning director's comments highlight growing concerns about AI's role in military applications, even as he explores the technology's benefits for filmmaking through his recent appointment to Stability AI's board of directors. What he's saying: Cameron believes humanity faces three converging existential threats that could define our future. "I do think there's still a danger of a 'Terminator'-style apocalypse where you put AI together with weapons systems, even up...
read Aug 7, 2025Showing themselves the door: Apple loses AI researchers to Meta, OpenAI amid talent crisis
Apple is hemorrhaging senior AI talent, with roughly a dozen researchers and engineers departing for rivals like Meta and OpenAI in recent months. The exodus has created what one AI recruiting firm describes as "a crisis of confidence" within Apple, signaling to competitors that the iPhone maker's AI team is vulnerable to aggressive poaching efforts. The big picture: Apple's AI brain drain began with the departure of Ruoming Pang, who led the company's foundation model team responsible for Apple Intelligence features like Genmoji and Priority Notifications. Pang joined Meta in July after managing Apple's roughly 100-person AI team since 2021,...
read Aug 6, 2025Breakthru Beverage CIO targets $700M in AI-powered e-commerce revenue
Glenn Remoreras has joined Breakthru Beverage Group as Chief Information Officer with a mandate to transform the $8.6 billion family-owned distributor into the most technologically advanced company in its industry. His strategy centers on scaling digital commerce, implementing AI across operations, and modernizing the sales process for the company's 10,000-person workforce. What you should know: Remoreras is taking a methodical approach to AI adoption that prioritizes education and infrastructure before deployment. The company targets $700 million in revenue through its B2B e-commerce platform Breakthru Now this year, enhanced with AI-powered chatbots and dynamic recommendations. Rather than rushing AI pilots, Remoreras...
read Aug 6, 2025Nuclear weapons experts oppose AI launch control despite inevitable integration
Nuclear weapons experts gathered at the University of Chicago in July are unanimous that artificial intelligence will inevitably become integrated into nuclear weapons systems, though none can predict exactly how this integration will unfold. The consensus among Nobel laureates, scientists, and former government officials underscores a critical shift in global security as AI permeates the most dangerous weapons on Earth. What you should know: While experts agree AI integration is inevitable, they remain united in opposing AI control over nuclear launch decisions. "In this realm, almost everybody says we want effective human control over nuclear weapon decisionmaking," says Jon Wolfsthal,...
read Aug 5, 2025Tesla co-founder uses recycled EV batteries to power AI data centers
JB Straubel, Tesla's co-founder and former chief technology officer, is pioneering a new approach to powering AI data centers using recycled electric vehicle batteries through his company Redwood Materials. This innovative solution addresses the skyrocketing energy demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure while extending the useful life of EV batteries that still retain significant storage capacity. What you should know: Straubel founded Redwood Materials in 2017 with the original mission of creating a closed-loop battery recycling system for electric vehicles. The company has now expanded its focus to repurpose used EV batteries for grid-scale energy storage applications. These "second-life" batteries still...
read Aug 5, 2025AI is displacing young workers and creating overall tech hiring slowdown, claims economist
Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs reports that artificial intelligence is already beginning to impact the U.S. labor market, with young tech workers experiencing the earliest signs of displacement. The data suggests that while most companies haven't yet deployed AI in production at scale, the technology sector has already begun pulling back on hiring, particularly affecting workers between 20 and 30 years old whose jobs are most susceptible to automation. What you should know: Tech sector employment has broken from its 20-year linear growth pattern, with hiring falling below trend over the past three years. Unemployment rates among tech workers aged...
read Aug 4, 2025Former Google researcher predicts AI hallucinations fix within a year
Former Google AI researcher Raza Habib predicts that AI hallucinations—when chatbots generate false or fabricated information—will be solved within a year, though he questions whether complete elimination is desirable. Speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm AI conference in London, Habib argued that some degree of hallucination may be necessary for AI systems to generate truly novel ideas and creative solutions. The technical solution: Habib explains that AI models are naturally well-calibrated before human preference training disrupts their accuracy assessment. "If you look at the models before they are fine-tuned on human preferences, they're surprisingly well calibrated," Habib said, noting that a model's...
read Aug 1, 2025Tim Cook tells Apple staff AI is “as big as the internet”
Apple CEO Tim Cook held an urgent company-wide meeting at Apple Park's Steve Jobs Theater, telling employees that the AI revolution is "as big or bigger" than the internet and smartphones while promising significant investment to catch up in artificial intelligence. The rare all-hands gathering signals Apple's mounting pressure to address its AI lag amid high-profile employee defections to competitors and internal strategic confusion. What you should know: Cook used the hourlong meeting to rally Apple's workforce around AI development, drawing parallels to the company's history of being late to markets but ultimately defining them. "Apple must do this. Apple...
read Jul 30, 2025Meta reports 22% revenue jump to $47.5B as CEO pitches personal AI
Meta smashed Wall Street expectations in Q2 2025, reporting $47.52 billion in revenue (up 22%) and $18.34 billion in net profit (up 36%), while CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision to "bring personal superintelligence to everyone." The tech giant now reaches 3.48 billion daily active users across its family of apps and is making massive AI investments to compete with Google and OpenAI in the race toward artificial general intelligence. What you should know: Meta's financial performance significantly exceeded analyst predictions across all key metrics. Revenue hit $47.52 billion versus the expected $44.8 billion, with earnings per share of $7.14...
read Jul 30, 2025Atlassian cuts 150 jobs in trend of AI replacing customer service roles
Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes announced the layoff of 150 employees, with customer service roles being replaced by artificial intelligence technology. The decision reflects a broader trend of tech executives automating jobs with AI, particularly in customer support functions that OpenAI's Sam Altman recently predicted could be entirely eliminated by AI systems. What you should know: The layoffs primarily target customer service positions that Atlassian, a software company, believes can be automated with AI technology. Cannon-Brookes made the announcement via video call from his home, with affected employees receiving six months of pay as severance. The cuts are part of a...
read Jul 30, 2025Musk bans “researcher” term at xAI after publicly berating employee
Elon Musk publicly berated an xAI employee on X for using the word "researcher" in a job posting, declaring that the company would eliminate the term and only use "engineer" going forward. The incident highlights Musk's volatile management style and his tendency to humiliate employees publicly, even when they're simply following existing company practices. What happened: Aditya Gupta, an xAI employee, posted a routine job advertisement seeking "researchers and engineers" for the AI startup. Musk responded with a harsh quote tweet, calling the term "researcher" a "false nomenclature" and "thinly-masked way of describing a two-tier engineering system." He announced that...
read Jul 30, 2025Nvidia CEO reviews all 42,000 employee salaries using machine learning
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang personally reviews the salaries of all 42,000 company employees at the end of every compensation cycle, using machine learning to help process the data. The hands-on approach reflects his philosophy that taking care of employees drives overall business success—a strategy that has helped create multiple billionaires on his management team as Nvidia has become the world's most valuable company. What you should know: Huang dismissed rumors about a secret stock option pool but confirmed his comprehensive approach to employee compensation.• "I review everybody's compensation, up to this day, at the end of every cycle," Huang said...
read Jul 30, 2025Zuckerberg says superintelligence is “now in sight” as Meta poaches top AI talent
Mark Zuckerberg announced that developing superintelligence is "now in sight" and outlined Meta's vision for "personal superintelligence" that empowers individuals rather than automating jobs. The statement comes after Meta's aggressive recruitment spree that has poached top AI researchers from OpenAI, Google, and Apple with multi-hundred million-dollar pay packages, positioning the company to compete directly with OpenAI's vision of AI replacing human work. What you should know: Zuckerberg's vision directly challenges OpenAI's approach to artificial general intelligence, which focuses on "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work." Meta believes superintelligence should be "a tool for personal empowerment"...
read Jul 29, 2025Boston Dynamics founder opens mall robotics exhibit to combat Terminator-like AI fears
Marc Raibert, the 75-year-old founder of Boston Dynamics, has opened a pop-up robotics exhibit at CambridgeSide mall in Cambridge, allowing visitors to interact with robots including the company's famous Spot robot. The free exhibit, which ran through August 15, represents Raibert's effort to counter negative Hollywood stereotypes about robots while showcasing work from his new Hyundai-funded research institute focused on integrating generative AI with robotics. What you should know: Raibert now leads the Robotics and AI Institute in Kendall Square, which opened in 2022 with 260 employees working on advanced robotics challenges. The institute is developing an "ultra mobile vehicle"...
read Jul 29, 2025Meta offers $1B+ packages to poach AI talent from Murati’s startup
Meta has approached more than a dozen employees at Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines Lab with recruitment offers, including one worth more than $1 billion over multiple years. The aggressive recruiting campaign reflects CEO Mark Zuckerberg's push to build his new Meta Superintelligence Labs by poaching talent from competitors, though none of the targeted researchers have accepted the offers yet. The big picture: Meta is deploying unprecedented compensation packages to compete for AI talent, with most offers ranging between $200-500 million over four years and first-year guarantees of $50-100 million for some candidates. How the recruitment works: Zuckerberg personally...
read Jul 29, 2025“They don’t go on strike.” CEO cuts 27 of 30 student workers on sales team and replaces them with AI.
Elijah Clark, a CEO who advises companies on AI implementation, has publicly celebrated firing employees and replacing them with artificial intelligence, telling Gizmodo he's "extremely excited" about laying off 27 of 30 student workers on his sales team. His candid enthusiasm reflects a broader corporate trend where executives are increasingly transparent about their intentions to displace human workers with AI technology, despite mixed results and potential long-term consequences. What they're saying: Clark's comments reveal the cold calculus behind AI adoption decisions among business leaders. "AI doesn't go on strike. It doesn't ask for a pay raise," Clark explained. "These things...
read Jul 28, 2025Acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur creates entire sci-fi series “Warlord” using only AI
Acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has unveiled "Warlord," a science fiction series created entirely through artificial intelligence, with the first teaser released today and the full episode arriving within two to three months. The project represents a bold experiment in AI-driven storytelling that could challenge traditional studio production models while pioneering an open-source creative ecosystem. What you should know: "Warlord" follows an interdimensional warrior who appears indestructible because his lover in another dimension pulls him to safety whenever he faces mortal danger. "The only time that lover can bring him to her is when he's absolutely close to death," Kapur tells...
read Jul 25, 2025Meta hires ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist for $14B AI push
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of OpenAI's ChatGPT, will serve as chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. This high-profile hire represents Meta's aggressive push into advanced AI research, as the company positions itself to compete directly with OpenAI in the race toward artificial general intelligence. What you should know: Zhao brings extensive experience from OpenAI's most significant AI breakthroughs to Meta's new superintelligence initiative. Beyond co-creating ChatGPT, Zhao helped build OpenAI's GPT-4, mini models, 4.1 and o3, and previously led synthetic data development at the company. He will work directly with Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the...
read Jul 25, 2025Be concrete, and 4 other lessons from successful enterprise AI implementations
Enterprise AI implementations fail at an alarming rate—not because the technology isn't powerful enough, but because organizations ignore the human elements that determine success or failure. After shipping AI products for over a decade at Workhuman, a leading employee recognition platform, and earlier in financial services, the patterns have become clear: companies that focus solely on technical performance while neglecting trust, culture, and change management are setting themselves up for expensive disappointments. The path to AI success follows a specific maturity progression: building trust first, enabling distributed innovation, focusing on concrete use cases, measuring real implementation rather than surface adoption,...
read Jul 25, 2025King Gizzard pulls music from Spotify over CEO’s AI drone investments
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has pulled their entire catalog from Spotify, citing CEO Daniel Ek's investments in AI military drone technology through his defense company ties. The Australian rock band's departure marks the latest in a growing wave of artist boycotts targeting Spotify's leadership over ethical concerns, potentially signaling broader industry tensions around streaming platform investments. What you should know: The prolific rock band removed all 27 studio albums, plus live recordings and compilations, from the world's largest music streaming service. Their Instagram statement read: "Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology. We just...
read Jul 24, 2025Microsoft cuts 15K jobs while stock hits $500—CEO addresses concerns
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has acknowledged that the company's extensive layoffs in 2025 have been "weighing heavily" on him, addressing employee concerns in an internal memo following the elimination of over 15,000 positions this year. The cuts, which represent one of the largest workforce reductions in Microsoft's history, have coincided with the company's stock reaching record highs above $500, highlighting the tension between financial performance and employee morale during a period of industry-wide restructuring. What you should know: Microsoft has laid off approximately 15,000 employees in 2025, including 9,000 people announced just a week before the stock hit its $500...
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