News/Talent Trends
World of Warcraft Devs Have Formed One of the Biggest Unions in Gaming
The recent unionization of over 500 World of Warcraft developers at Activision Blizzard, facilitated by Microsoft's acquisition and pledge to honor a labor neutrality agreement, marks a significant milestone in the video game industry. Key factors enabling unionization: Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the company's commitment to a labor neutrality agreement played a crucial role in creating an environment that supported workers' efforts to unionize: The labor neutrality agreement, which became active 60 days after the acquisition, allowed workers to explore collective bargaining without fear of retaliation. Prior to the agreement, many developers were hesitant to show interest in...
read Aug 1, 2024Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Appoints 1st Chief AI Officer
CISA hires inaugural Chief AI Officer, signaling growing importance of AI in federal cybersecurity efforts. Key Development: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has appointed its first-ever Chief AI Officer, following a government-wide mandate issued in March: The hiring of a Chief AI Officer at CISA is particularly noteworthy given the agency's critical role in safeguarding national infrastructure, combating foreign influence operations, and ensuring election cybersecurity. This move comes as part of a broader push across all federal agencies to prioritize AI integration and oversight, with more such appointments expected in the near future. CISA's Unique Position: As the...
read Jul 29, 2024How to Cultivate Essential Skills for Success In the AI Era
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is set to dramatically reshape the future of work, necessitating a new set of skills for individuals to remain valuable in the job market. Two core skillsets for an AI future: To stay relevant in an AI-driven world, individuals will need to develop a combination of AI skills and human soft skills: AI skills involve the ability to effectively use, collaborate with, delegate to, and supervise AI tools, as well as understanding their capabilities, limitations, and ethical implications. Human soft skills represent abilities that AI cannot yet match, such as strategic thinking, creative...
read Jul 28, 2024The Latest in the SAG-AFTRA Strike Against Game Publishers
SAG-AFTRA has called for a strike against major game publishers over concerns about the use of AI in games, particularly regarding voice acting and motion capture performances. Key sticking point: AI training using motion capture data; While the game companies have offered some AI protections for voice performers, the union is demanding that motion capture and stunt performers also have the right to informed consent and fair compensation for the use of their performances in AI training. The strike affects over 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members working on games produced by Disney, Electronic Arts, Blizzard Activision, Take-Two, WB Games, and others. However,...
read Jul 26, 2024OpenAI Reassigns Its Top Safety Exec Amid Mounting Scrutiny, Antitrust Probes
OpenAI has reassigned top AI safety executive Aleksandr Madry to role focused on AI reasoning. Key developments: Last week, OpenAI removed Aleksandr Madry, one of its top safety executives, from his role as head of preparedness and reassigned him to a job focused on AI reasoning: Madry's preparedness team was tasked with protecting against catastrophic risks related to frontier AI models. He will still work on core AI safety in his new role. The decision came less than a week before Democratic senators sent a letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman questioning how the company is addressing emerging safety concerns...
read Jul 26, 2024Ex-Apple Engineers Develop Lidar-Free Autonomous Delivery Robots
A California-based startup called Vayu Robotics, founded by ex-Apple car engineers, has developed autonomous delivery robots that can navigate complex environments without using expensive lidar sensors. Key Takeaways: Pioneering a new approach to autonomous navigation Vayu's delivery robots leverage a transformer-based "mobility foundation model" and passive sensors to navigate autonomously, eliminating the need for costly lidar sensors or pre-mapping environments. This unique technology allows the robots to handle payloads up to 100 pounds and travel at speeds under 20mph, making them suitable for last-mile delivery applications. The company's founders, previously part of Apple's Special Projects Group working on the now-canceled...
read Jul 26, 2024AI Unicorn Cohere Cuts Jobs Despite $5.5B Valuation, Highlighting Industry Challenges
Cohere, an AI startup founded by ex-Google researchers and backed by Nvidia, recently completed a $500 million funding round that more than doubled its valuation to $5.5 billion. Despite this, the company cut around 20 roles from its 400-person workforce on Tuesday. Focusing on enterprise AI: Unlike many competitors, Cohere has concentrated its efforts on developing generative AI solutions for businesses rather than consumer-facing chatbots. The company's clients include notable names such as Notion, Oracle, and Bamboo HR. Ongoing hiring in key areas: Even with the recent layoffs, Cohere is still actively hiring for positions in customer operations, partnerships, revenue,...
read Jul 25, 2024These AI Companies Are Boosting Career Development Through Personalized Learning, Mentorship and Job Matching
AI is becoming an increasingly crucial tool for career development and professional growth. By leveraging AI's capabilities, individuals can access personalized learning experiences, virtual mentors, tailored job recommendations, and valuable networking opportunities. AI is transforming the way we plan and develop our careers, enabling us to stay competitive and adapt to the ever-changing job market. Personalized learning and skill development: AI platforms offer tailored course recommendations and adapt to individual learning needs, helping professionals acquire the skills needed to excel in their careers: Platforms like Coursera and Udemy use machine learning algorithms to provide personalized course suggestions based on users'...
read Jul 25, 2024Improper AI Adoption Is Increasing Burnout, Upwork Survey Says
AI's impact on the workplace is more complex than anticipated, leading to increased workloads and employee burnout, according to an Upwork survey of executives and employees across four countries. The study reveals a significant disconnect between executive expectations and employee experiences when it comes to AI-driven productivity gains. Executives optimistic about AI boosting productivity; employees struggle to realize gains: While 96% of executives expect AI to enhance worker productivity, 47% of employees using AI are unsure how to achieve the anticipated efficiency improvements, with 77% reporting decreased productivity and increased workloads due to AI tools. Employees cite the need to...
read Jul 23, 2024As Major Game Companies Embrace AI, Pushback from Workers Is On the Rise
The video game industry is increasingly turning to generative AI, sparking concerns among workers about job displacement and the degradation of their craft. Key takeaways: The adoption of AI in game development is already well underway, with major studios like Activision Blizzard and Riot Games integrating AI tools into their workflows: Activision Blizzard has approved the internal use of AI tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for concept art, and has laid off many 2D artists while pushing remaining concept artists to use AI in their work. Riot Games experimented with developing its own AI system in partnership with Vizcom,...
read Jul 23, 2024Video Game Actors Inch Closer to Strike as AI Negotiations Falter
SAG-AFTRA video game performers edge closer to strike as AI negotiations stall: SAG-AFTRA announced that its national board has granted executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland the authority to call a strike if a settlement cannot be reached with video game companies, as negotiations stall over artificial intelligence terms in the Interactive Media Agreement contract. Ongoing negotiations and key issues: The union has been negotiating the contract, which covers about 2,600 voice and motion-capture performers in the video game industry, for nearly a year: The contract expired in November 2022, and in September 2023, more than 30,000 union members...
read Jul 22, 2024HBR: Remote Workers Stand to Gain (and Lose) the Most from Generative AI
Automation's historical impact on blue-collar vs. white-collar jobs: Automation has traditionally affected manufacturing and trade jobs first, while office workers were impacted later as technology advanced: The mechanized loom pushed self-employed weavers into factories, and Ford's assembly line required skilled mechanics and engineers to perform repetitive tasks. With the introduction of networked PCs, clerical and administrative workers transitioned from people-oriented roles to software-based tasks, often with lower pay, fewer skill-building opportunities, and reduced variety, human connection, and dignity. Remote work and the empowerment of white-collar workers: The Covid-19 pandemic-driven shift to remote work further empowered white-collar employees: Remote work provided...
read Jul 19, 2024OpenAI Pursues Custom AI Chips, Threatening Nvidia’s Dominance in the Market
OpenAI, the leading artificial intelligence company, is exploring the development of its own AI chips to bolster its supply chain and reduce reliance on Nvidia. Discussions with chip designers: OpenAI is in talks with Broadcom and other semiconductor designers about creating a custom AI chip: The company aims to address shortages in its supply chain and decrease dependency on Nvidia, which has been a key supplier of AI chips for OpenAI's advanced language models. OpenAI has also hired former Google chip staffers to support its chip development efforts, signaling a serious commitment to pursuing this initiative. Previous plans for chip...
read Jul 19, 2024SheerLuxe’s AI “Team Member” Sparks Backlash Over Diversity and Ethics Concerns
The short-form fashion and lifestyle publication SheerLuxe has come under fire for introducing an AI-powered "team member" named Reem, modeled after an Arab woman, raising questions about the ethics and implications of AI in the media industry. Backlash over AI replacing human roles and lack of diversity: SheerLuxe's decision to "hire" an AI bot as a fashion and lifestyle editor has sparked widespread criticism, with many accusing the publication of taking jobs away from human journalists, particularly women of color who are already underrepresented in the media landscape: Critics argue that the move puts the jobs of young creatives and...
read Jul 17, 2024OpenAI Founding Member Announces Launch of New AI Education Startup Eureka Labs
Andrej Karpathy, former OpenAI founding member and Tesla AI scientist, has announced the launch of Eureka Labs, an AI-native school that aims to improve education by combining human expertise with AI teaching assistants. Teacher + AI symbiosis: Eureka Labs seeks to provide an ideal learning experience by leveraging AI to scale and guide human expert-written course materials: Subject matter experts will design course materials, while AI teaching assistants will guide students through them, allowing for a common platform to run an entire curriculum. The goal is to make it easy for anyone to learn anything, expanding education in both reach...
read Jul 17, 2024FTC Probes Amazon’s Deal With Adept Amid Heightened Scrutiny of Tech Giants
The FTC is scrutinizing Amazon's deal with AI startup Adept, seeking more information about the tech giant's move to hire most of Adept's team and license its technology, according to an exclusive Reuters report. Key details of the deal: Amazon's acquisition playbook involved hiring Adept's team and licensing its AI technology: Adept announced that its plans to develop "useful general intelligence and an enterprise agent product" would have required significant focus on fundraising, leading to the deal with Amazon. The FTC's informal inquiry may not necessarily lead to a full investigation or enforcement action, but it highlights the close attention...
read Jul 16, 2024EU Sanctions Target Arkady Volozh Stages Comeback with New AI Venture
Arkady Volozh, the cofounder of Russian internet giant Yandex, is making a comeback with a new European AI company called Nebius Group, aiming to become a leading provider of AI infrastructure. Key developments in Volozh's journey: Volozh, once known as the architect of "Russia's Google," faced significant challenges following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022: He was targeted by EU sanctions and forced to step down from Yandex, which was valued at $30 billion at its peak. Volozh and his team spent two years negotiating with the Kremlin to sell off parts of Yandex still based in Russia, including the...
read Jul 12, 2024Breaking Silos: Experts Reveal Secret to Building User-Centric AI Products
Cross-functional collaboration is essential for building user-centric AI products that truly meet customer needs, according to experts from Capital One, Pinterest, and Slack at VB Transform 2024. AI innovation and its challenges: The rise of generative AI has led to a non-deterministic paradigm in product development, requiring teams to navigate numerous variables while focusing on quality, safety, and performance: The rapid pace of AI innovation and the evolution of AI foundations have made it challenging for developers to keep up with the latest advancements. With AI and large language models (LLMs), predicting the outcomes of user experiences has become difficult,...
read Jul 12, 2024Ex-OpenAI Employee Compares OpenAI to the Titanic
A former OpenAI employee recently revealed he left the company due to concerns it was prioritizing product development over safety, drawing parallels to the Titanic disaster. OpenAI as the Titanic: William Saunders, who worked on OpenAI's "superalignment team" for three years, shared his reasons for leaving in a podcast interview: He questioned whether OpenAI was on a path more akin to the successful Apollo space program or the tragic Titanic, ultimately concluding the latter. Saunders described an office culture where employees raising safety concerns were punished and leadership focused on profit, stating, "Over time, it started to really feel like...
read Jul 11, 2024Intuit Lays Off 1,800, Plans to Hire 1,800 in AI and Data Push
Intuit lays off 1,800 employees while also planning to hire 1,800 new ones as it focuses on investing in AI and data. Restructuring at Intuit: CEO Sasan Goodarzi announced layoffs, which include approximately 1,050 employees "not meeting expectations," as part of the company's plan to accelerate investments in data and AI: The layoffs come after Intuit had previously been noted for avoiding mass layoffs last spring, unlike many of its peers in the tech industry. Intuit recently shut down the Mint app and MailChimp-owned TinyLetter, signaling a shift in the company's priorities and focus. Investing in AI and data: Intuit's...
read Jul 10, 2024Ex-Humane Execs Launch AI Fact-Checking Search Engine Amid Startup’s Struggles
Two former Humane execs have left the struggling AI hardware startup to found Infactory, an AI-powered fact-checking search engine focused exclusively on data. The move comes as Humane faces post-launch struggles with its much-hyped AI device. Founders' background: Brooke Hartley Moy, former Humane Strategic Partnerships Lead, and Ken Kocienda, former Head of Product Engineering, are now CEO and CTO of Infactory, respectively. Both founders have significant experience at major tech companies, with Hartley Moy previously at Humane and Kocienda spending 16 years at Apple before joining Humane. Their departure echoes Humane's own origin story, as its founders also left longtime...
read Jul 8, 2024The Role of Chief AI Officer Will Be Crucial To Navigating Generative AI in Business
The rapid rise of generative AI is transforming the business landscape, necessitating a new C-suite role to navigate the challenges and opportunities: the Chief AI Officer (CAIO). The CAIO as a visionary leader: The CAIO role requires a unique blend of technical understanding, business acumen, strategic foresight, and innovation to mobilize an entire enterprise in the face of AI disruption: The CAIO should be a visionary leader who balances technical knowledge with the ability to understand the disruptive nature of generative AI and its potential to fundamentally change how businesses function and thrive. Rather than assigning the role to an...
read Jul 5, 2024AI Reveals Remote Work Dominance, Demand for Experienced Talent in Tech Job Market
A Hacker News analysis reveals key job market trends by leveraging GPT-4o and LangChain to categorize over 10,000 comments from monthly "Ask HN: Who is Hiring?" threads, providing valuable insights for job seekers and industry observers. Methodology and technical implementation: The author used a multi-step process to gather, classify, and analyze the comments: Selenium was used to search for the monthly thread IDs, and the Hacker News API was then employed to collect the top comments and save them to an SQLite database. GPT-4o and LangChain were utilized to classify the comments based on a predefined HNJobPosting schema, which included...
read Jul 2, 2024Amazon’s Adept Acquisition Sparks “Reverse Acquihire” Trend in AI Industry
Amazon's hiring of Adept's team sparks a new trend for Big Tech to acquire AI startups without facing antitrust scrutiny: Amazon recently announced it is hiring 80% of the team behind Adept, an AI startup that raised $400 million to build advanced language models, and will also license Adept's technology. This follows a similar move by Microsoft earlier this year, when it hired most of the employees of Inflection, another well-funded AI startup, and licensed its technology in a deal worth up to $650 million. These "reverse acquihires" allow Big Tech firms to effectively acquire promising AI companies without triggering...
read