"Nobel Prize winner Daron Acemoglu and Yale economist Pascual Restrepo call this 'so-so automation': It’s not superintelligent robots taking over our workplaces. Instead, reliably mediocre ones are being installed that displace human work while annoying us all." www.fastcompany.com/91572019/sta...

Starbucks made a national bet on an AI tool; 9 months later, it pulled the plug

The exclusive inside story of how a promising AI system flamed out, as told by dozens of Starbucks employees and the tech startup behind it. Plus, what leaders everywhere should learn from the experie...

fastcompany.com

"Nobel Prize winner Daron Acemoglu and Yale economist Pascual Restrepo call this 'so-so automation': It’s not superintelligent robots taking over our workplaces. Instead, reliably mediocre ones are being installed that displace human work while annoying us all." removepaywalls.com/https://www....

Here the link to the story www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Big Tech Needs to Justify AI Spending as Investors Dump Stocks

After last week’s wipeout in chips and the broader selloff in technology stocks, pressure is building for the biggest spenders on artificial intelligence to justify their expenditures to beleaguered t...

bloomberg.com

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · 4w ago

It’s been a brutal year for big tech companies that have chosen to focus on layoffs and dumping all their money on data centers. Microsoft’s down -15%, SpaceX -25% and Oracle -38% so far in 2026. The AI bubble may not yet have burst but many investors seem to think the juice isn’t worth the squeeze

I begged the editor to leave in my jokes. He did. Flipper's $249 Busy Bar Tells Your Coworkers to Scram and When to Come Back www.pcmag.com/news/flipper...

Flipper's $249 Busy Bar Tells Your Coworkers to Scram and When to Come Back

I went hands-on with a desktop info panel that aims to protect your focus at work—but might make your colleagues hate you.

pcmag.com

"much token usage, or ‘chewing,’ is not from supercharged engineers creating lots of code, but people converting PDFs into presentation slides." In other words, the message from companies is: "AI doing grunt work is too expensive." You cannot make this up. www.404media.co/companies-ar...

Companies Are Throttling Employees’ AI Use Because It’s Too Expensive

Sources and leaks from Amazon, Adobe, Atlassian, Citi, and more show what is really happening with AI right now: companies are trying to rein in AI use as costs spiral out of control.

404media.co

A lesson in making it difficult for people to feel sympathy for you www.the-independent.com/life-style/b...

Millionaire biohacker reveals he has incurable disease amid mission to ‘defeat death’

‘My stomach is eating itself,’ the tech entrepreneur announced on social media

the-independent.com

The last 2 weeks, I've been unable to load a ton of web pages that usually go just fine I turned VPN on and then off I reset browser settings I searched for other causes: DNS, firewall, network settings... No dice Then I QUIT my VPN application. All the pages loaded 🤦‍♀️ Beware NordVPN users!

Truer words never spoken (by @jilleduffy.bsky.social) www.wired.com/story/halo-s...

AI companies coming to make us stop using em dashes, or make us double-down on em dashes... #AI #writing #TheGreatEmDashDebate

People who hype AI have no idea about diminishing returns We have decades of research showing that when people only work on hard stuff & don't get sufficient breaks, they burn out If AI is sold as a tool that "automates the mindless parts of work" then the worker is only left w the hard parts

What I don't get about AI hype is this: People w middling productivity don't need masterful tools They need to minimize distractions. They need to develop the skill of focus. They need to differentiate between planning & strategizing. They need to evaluate risk AI doesn't give them any of that

This article asks, "What if the problem isn't AI but men?" www.wired.com/story/meet-t...

Meet the Sad Wives of AI

Men are obsessed with AI. Many of their wives absolutely hate it—and them.

wired.com

Interesting design, and it's true about the ear being a good, steady source for HR via the skin, but aren't we all just so over "innovative" wearables? Give me a watch or give me nothing www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

Lumia 2 Smart Earrings: Discreet Next-Gen Health Tracking

Track your sleep, cycle, activity, blood flow, and more. Beautiful enough to wear anywhere. Styled as jewelry, sized to disappear.

kickstarter.com

One of America's leading tech writers, @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social , has announced he's leaving the newsroom to start the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media geoffreyfowler.substack.com/p/what-is-ai...

What is AI doing to our kids? I’m going to find out.

After 12 years as a tech columnist, I'm helping launch the new Youth AI Safety Institute to test the AI products shaping childhood.

geoffreyfowler.substack.com

A top contender in the Shittiest Announcement to Fire Employees category www.coinbase.com/blog/buildin...

Building a leaner and faster Coinbase

Building a leaner and faster Coinbase SEO

coinbase.com

Tom's Guide said "sleep tourism" would be "one of 2025's biggest travel trends" Was it? I thought "sleep on vacation" was something parents of small children do when their kids are finally old enough to be left with another adult, but not an industry www.tomsguide.com/wellness/sle...

Sleep tourism will be one of 2025's biggest travel trends — here’s why you should book a sleep retreat too

Should you hop on the sleep tourism trend this holiday season? Absolutely and here’s why

tomsguide.com

Scientists found a "golden orb" at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Alaska. After 3 years, they finally figured out that it is... a bunch of dead cells from a sea anemone www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/s...

Scientists Found This Mysterious Golden Orb on the Seafloor Nearly Three Years Ago. Now, They Finally Know What It Is

After a long, winding road of tests, researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and other institutions determined that the strange blob once attached a large sea anemone to a ...

smithsonianmag.com

Tip: If you cannot locate an email address for customer service for a company, open the Terms of Service, search for (press ctrl+F) "@". Almost always, you can find an email address in there. #techtip #customerservice

You went to the Red Rooster Harlem approximately 14 years ago, and today you got your first ever email from them

an absolutely brutal reminder that as reporters at non-worker-owned outlets, you don't own your story; your corporation does. it's their IP, not yours.

Christopher Mims@mims.bsky.social · 4mo ago

yiiiikes

"Economists & labor researchers are increasingly asking why the gains from AI-driven productivity aren't flowing to workers" Are they? ARE THEY? Have they not paid attention to the last 50yrs of capitalism?! *Unions* help workers, not increased productivity qz.com/ai-productiv...

AI boosts worker productivity but not their paychecks

Economists and labor researchers are increasingly asking why the gains from AI-driven productivity aren't flowing to workers

qz.com

Counterpoint: Did it ever know? www.theverge.com/tldr/915176/...

Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want

Did the tech industry get high on its own supply?

theverge.com

The acronym POS will never ever mean "point of sale" to me

Soft off days for remote workers. I'm 100% PRO this. Get your job done, don't leave your immediate coworkers hanging, and then go live your life #work #worklife #remotework www.fastcompany.com/91528048/no-...

‘No one knew I was in a different time zone’: The workers who travel, play tennis, and do chores on the clock

The trend is called ‘soft off days’—and it's a sign work-life balance still feels out of reach for many.

fastcompany.com

Went back and read that 2016 Guardian interview with Ottessa Moshfegh where she says she wrote Eileen by buying a book called The 90-Day Novel and following all its instructions. I know she got some shit for it, but honestly, she's a complete bad-ass www.theguardian.com/books/2016/s...

Didn't we hear about this, like, two years ago? Ah, it's the same case, but now the trial has concluded. www.npr.org/2024/11/14/n...

They told insurers a bear damaged their car. But it was actually a person in a costume

Four LA residents allegedly defrauded multiple insurance companies of over $141,000. A wildlife expert who reviewed footage of the incidents said that the culprit was "clearly a human in a bear suit."

npr.org

MisterJayEm@misterjayem.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"bear suit insurance fraud"

An unrated thing about email is, you know how you have a conversation sometimes and you think to yourself a day later "what I should have said was..." — with email, you can just wait a day, have the thought, and send the right message.

Exactly one year ago today:

News Eye@newseye.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NEW: Growing fears of food shortages on USS Tripoli & other US ships in the Middle East. This photo is the kind of meals now being served. It was sent by a sailor to her family. Families are now trying to send food parcels to the ships. Full story 👉 www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Quote post with something "good" that lasted longer than the Confederacy (1861-1865) Action Park (1978-1996)

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Quote post with something good that lasted longer than the Confederacy (1861-1865) Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014)

I very nearly started writing for a new client until I read the terms of service for its CMS (which doubles as its payment system) closely. The CMS charges writers 10% of their payment You want me to PAY A FEE to WORK FOR YOU?! GTFO I declined the work