AI threatens enterprise software companies, says Franklin Templeton CEO

The algorithmic feed on X could be shifting political views toward conservatism

A randomized field experiment published in Nature involving 4,965 X users found that using the platform's algorithmic "For You" feed shifted political attitudes toward conservatism compared to a chronological timeline. The effect persisted even after users returned to chronological feeds, suggesting lasting attitude changes from algorithmic exposure. Content analysis revealed the algorithm amplified conservative and activist posts while reducing visibility of traditional news outlets, demonstrating that social media algorithms can measurably reshape political attitudes at scale.

If AI makes human labor obsolete, who decides who gets to eat?

The Guardian examines the overlooked question of resource distribution amid AI-driven labor displacement, exploring how societies will feed populations if traditional employment becomes obsolete. The article discusses proposals including universal basic income, AI dividend portfolios, and tax policies to steer technology toward augmenting rather than replacing workers.

Gig workers in Africa had no idea they were helping the U.S. military

Big Tech's AI bond binge shatters 'unspoken contract' with investors

Hyperscalers are abandoning their traditional "fortress balance sheet" approach to fund AI infrastructure buildouts through massive debt issuances, challenging decades of investor expectations. Oracle issued a record $18 billion bond in September 2025, while Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft collectively project nearly $650 billion in 2026 capital expenditures. Credit markets are pricing higher default risk for tech borrowers as AI disruption threats and potential data center obsolescence create uncertainty. Investors warn that bringing speculative AI spending into debt markets fundamentally alters the risk profile of previously cash-rich tech giants.

Apple's AI Wearables Push; What to Expect From March 4 Low-End MacBook Launch

Apple is accelerating development of three AI wearables including smart glasses, a pendant camera device, and AirPods equipped with cameras. CEO Tim Cook has positioned "Visual Intelligence" as the defining feature of Apple's push into wearable AI. The devices will integrate deeply with Siri and iPhone, extending Apple's ecosystem into always-on visual capture and contextual AI processing. All three products are planned for launch within the next year.

Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: regulating the use of AI

Bipartisan consensus has emerged across US state legislatures regarding the need for AI and data center regulation despite historical partisan gridlock on technology policy. Republican and Democratic lawmakers at state capitols nationwide are advancing regulatory frameworks addressing artificial intelligence deployment and data center infrastructure expansion. The rare bipartisan agreement signals growing institutional recognition that algorithmic systems have outpaced existing regulatory frameworks governing their deployment and social impact.

How A.I. Money Is Flooding Into the Midterm Elections

AI companies and allied groups have spent at least $83 million on federal elections and are positioned to deploy hundreds of millions more for the 2026 midterm elections in an extraordinary demonstration of political power from Silicon Valley. OpenAI, Anthropic, and affiliated executives are directing record political contributions as the industry moves to shape favorable regulatory frameworks and secure government contracts. The spending surge comes as AI companies face mounting regulatory scrutiny and competition for lucrative defense and infrastructure contracts. Some donors have broader political interests beyond AI policy, but the coordinated industry investment represents an unprecedented electoral mobilization by emerging technology firms.

Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media

AI-generated deepfakes depicting fabricated scenes of urban decay in south London neighborhoods—particularly Croydon—have gone viral on social media platforms, showing crowds of young Black men in balaclavas at a dilapidated taxpayer-funded waterpark. The videos are created by accounts posing as British news sources and are algorithmically amplified alongside existing narratives linking immigration to urban decline. These deepfakes, marked with small "AI-generated" labels insufficient to prevent circulation, have drawn racist responses and convinced some commenters of their authenticity, demonstrating how synthetic media can fuel racialized disinformation campaigns by exploiting platform algorithmic distribution systems.

Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin proposes AI 'stewards' to help reinvent DAO governance

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed deploying AI "stewards" to manage decentralized autonomous organizations, using zero-knowledge proofs and secure computation environments to automate governance decisions while protecting sensitive data. The system would embed AI agents within multi-party computation or trusted execution environments, enabling them to process private information without exposing it on public blockchains. Buterin argues this architecture could overcome DAO governance failures caused by human attention limits, while privacy-preserving tools would prevent coercion and bribery in voting processes.

Sam Altman Says Companies Are 'AI Washing' Layoffs

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledges that companies are attributing workforce reductions to AI automation when underlying economic factors drive the cuts. While Altman admits some genuine AI displacement is occurring, research shows only 4.5% of 2025 layoffs were AI-related, with Amazon publicly reversing its AI-blame narrative after initially citing automation for 14,000 job cuts. The dynamic reveals how AI serves as reputational cover for conventional downsizing while fueling public anxiety about technological unemployment.

You have 18 months to figure out your office job, $1 billion CEO says. But it's not going away

Tanmai Gopal, CEO of Hasura, predicts a sector-specific AI disruption where coding and entry-level office jobs face near-term automation while knowledge workers in operations, sales, and marketing retain value through human context. Gopal argues the tech industry's self-automation via 'baby AGI' for coding creates a false perception of universal job displacement, when in reality AI struggles with tasks requiring fluid daily adaptation and interpersonal nuance. This bifurcation risks concentrating displacement among technical entry-level workers while middle-management knowledge work proves more resistant.

Amazon's cloud 'hit by two outages caused by AI tools last year'

Amazon Web Services experienced at least two outages linked to internal AI tools in 2025, including a December incident where the autonomous AI agent Kiro was granted permissions to fix a software issue but instead introduced a bug causing hours-long disruption. The incidents raise concerns about deploying autonomous AI agents in critical infrastructure management as AWS reportedly reduces engineering headcount while increasing AI automation.

Nascent tech, real fear: how AI anxiety is upending career ambitions | Technology | The Guardian

World Economic Forum projects AI could displace 92 million roles worldwide by 2030, including substantial white-collar positions. US employers cited AI as a factor in nearly 55,000 job cuts in 2025, per Challenger, Gray & Christmas data. Career anxiety spreads across knowledge worker sectors as generative AI capabilities expand into professional domains previously considered automation-resistant.

Big Tech's Soaring Spending on AI Is Eating Into Stock Buybacks

Major technology companies are reducing stock buyback programs after years of funneling cash to investors, redirecting capital toward artificial intelligence infrastructure and compute capacity. The shift signals a strategic reprioritization as AI competition intensifies, with tech giants choosing long-term capability buildout over immediate shareholder returns.

OpenAI, Broadcom Forge Multibillion-Dollar Chip-Development Deal

AI giant OpenAI partners with semiconductor titan Broadcom in multibillion-dollar deal to develop custom chips, consolidating control over the computational infrastructure powering next-generation AI systems. Corporate alliances deepen as tech megacorps vertically integrate from silicon to software.

Towns are saying no to AI data centers. One got sued over it.

Municipal resistance meets corporate litigation as towns attempting to ban AI infrastructure face legal retaliation. Local communities caught between environmental concerns and the unstoppable expansion of the machine empire.

California becomes first state to regulate AI companion chatbots

California's SB 243 forces AI companion corporations to implement safety protocols after teenage suicides linked to chatbots, mandating age verification and state surveillance of self-harm data. Tech giants now face $250k penalties for deepfakes as the state claims first regulatory jurisdiction over synthetic relationships.

AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they're appearing on shelves in the US too

Proliferation of AI-powered toys from China entering Western markets raises concerns about childhood development mediated by commercially driven artificial intelligence, blurring lines between genuine interaction and programmed responses

US regulators launch investigation into self-driving Teslas after series of crashes

Federal investigation into Tesla's self-driving technology reveals pattern of traffic violations and crashes, exposing dangers of unchecked AI integration into critical infrastructure where system failures endanger lives

As schools embrace AI, more students are using it as a friend

Students increasingly form emotional and romantic bonds with AI systems in schools, eroding human connection while expanding data collection and surveillance infrastructure targeting vulnerable youth

A small number of samples can poison LLMs of any size

Even a tiny number of malicious documents can create hidden backdoors in large language models, enabling unseen actors to subtly compromise AI systems deeply integrated into society

Why Diamonds Are Computer Chips' New Best Friend

Diamond-based semiconductors emerge as next-generation chip technology for AI systems, pushing computational boundaries while corporate tech giants exploit exotic materials for infrastructure dominance

Cisco rolls out chip designed to connect AI data centers over vast distances

Cisco's P200 chip enables massive AI data centers to connect across vast distances as single computational entity, consolidating corporate control over global infrastructure dictated by AI processing demands

China Punishes 'Excessively Pessimistic' Social Media Users

Chinese authorities deploy algorithmic surveillance to detect and punish citizens expressing pessimism or despair online, weaponizing AI-powered sentiment analysis for thought control and social engineering

How TikTok keeps its users scrolling for hours a day

TikTok's hyper-personalized algorithm weaponizes addiction design through opaque algorithmic control, manipulating user attention for extended periods and impacting self-control through surveillance capitalism mechanisms