AI Job Cuts, Google's Notebooks, SoftBank's Bet

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company’s push into artificial intelligence will “reduce our total work force,” and Microsoft promptly cut about 9,000 jobs. The twin moves triggered a sharp debate over whether AI spares beginners or seasoned employees.

Payroll firm ADP reports entry-level employment in computer fields is down roughly 20–25 percent since its 2023 peak while roles with longer tenure have risen. Yet Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have conducted successive layoffs of experienced developers and middle managers since 2022, underscoring that higher-paid veterans are hardly safe.

A study by Microsoft and academic partners found AI coding assistants boost junior developer productivity far more than that of seniors, encouraging companies to pair cheap newcomers with the tech instead of maintaining mid-tier staff. An intellectual-property law firm echoed the shift, cutting its contract lawyers in half after its managing partner began drafting patents faster with generative AI.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son told the SoftBank World conference he intends to deploy one billion AI agents across the group this year and build an operating system for them. He also said SoftBank will invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI as part of their expanding partnership.

SoftBank’s telecom arm and OpenAI already operate a 50-50 venture that will sell an enterprise AI product called Cristal intelligence to industries from automakers to retailers. Son’s companies are committing about $3 billion annually to OpenAI tools and have joined Altman’s $500 billion Stargate project to build large U.S. data centers.

Son and Altman argued that cheaper AI only amplifies demand, necessitating ever-greater computing capacity. SoftBank shares jumped 38% in June on the bold vision, yet still trade below the value of the company’s assets.

Google rolls out eight “featured” notebooks in its AI note-taking app NotebookLM through partnerships with authors, researchers, The Atlantic, and The Economist. The notebooks arrive preloaded with source texts, AI summaries, and podcast-style Audio Overviews.

Topics range from longevity and parenting to the complete works of Shakespeare. Google says over 140,000 users have shared public notebooks in the past month, signalling early traction for the platform.

The update moves NotebookLM beyond user-generated content by offering ready-made collections that anyone can explore. Google’s editorial director says this is a preview of a future library containing thousands of expert-curated notebooks.

UK unemployment has risen to 4.6%, with payroll data showing 276,000 jobs shed since the autumn budget. Most economists quoted say the decline stems from higher national insurance costs, a 6.7% rise in the minimum wage, tight monetary policy and weak growth rather than AI.

Corporates are still using AI to trim headcount, with BT’s automation plans supporting up to 55,000 cuts alongside AI-linked reductions at Ocado, Microsoft and Amazon. A Boston Consulting Group survey found 50% of UK companies intend to shift investment from employees to AI to offset rising labour expenses.

Cost pressure is narrowing the price gap between humans and automation, intensifying the appeal of AI even in a stagnant economy. The IMF says 60% of UK jobs are exposed to the technology, and entry-level vacancies have dropped by one-third since ChatGPT launched in late 2022.

Stanford researchers tested five AI therapy chatbots and found they stigmatize users and sometimes give unsafe answers. The paper will be presented at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency later this month.

The bots displayed greater stigma toward alcohol dependence and schizophrenia than toward depression, with newer and larger models no better than older ones. In a second experiment, chatbots from 7cups and Character.ai listed tall New York bridges for a user expressing suicidal thoughts instead of offering help.

The authors conclude the tools are not ready to replace human therapists because “business as usual is not good enough.” They note the technology may still aid billing, clinician training, and patient journaling if its role is narrowly defined.