Workday hits over five-year low as sluggish sales forecast sparks AI disruption fears
Workday shares plunged to a five-year low after the HR and payroll software provider issued a soft sales forecast, intensifying investor concerns about AI-driven competitive threats. The company is facing pressure from AI tools that could directly disrupt its core offerings, alongside broader hiring slowdowns as AI adoption reduces demand for HR software. Australian software firm WiseTech Global announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs (one-third of its workforce) in a two-year AI-linked restructuring. Workday's struggles exemplify how AI is reshaping enterprise software markets, with investors punishing companies perceived as vulnerable to AI disruption while rewarding those positioned to capture AI productivity gains.
Reuters • Feb 26
CORPORATE FINANCE LABOR
Hide from Meta's spyglasses with this new Android app
Developer Yves Jeanrenaud has released "Nearby Glasses," an open-source Android application that detects nearby Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses via Bluetooth signals. The app arrives as Meta reportedly prepares to add facial recognition capabilities to its wearable devices, raising concerns from domestic abuse charities about enabling stalkers to covertly identify and track individuals in public spaces.
The Register • Feb 26
SURVEILLANCE PRIVACY BIOMETRICS
Ad Tech Company Optimizely Targeted in Cyberattack
Ad technology firm Optimizely confirmed that a voice-phishing attack compromised internal business systems including Zendesk and Salesforce, exposing customer data. The breach affects major enterprise clients including PayPal, Salesforce, Vodafone, and Zoom. Voice phishing enables attackers to bypass technical security measures by targeting employees through social engineering.
SecurityWeek • Feb 26
CORPORATE PRIVACY CYBERCRIME
Jamie Dimon says society should start preparing for AI job displacement: 'Now's the time to start thinking about' it
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned society must prepare for AI-driven job displacement and would support government intervention including potential bans on mass AI layoffs to prevent social destabilization. Speaking at Davos, Dimon stated AI's effect on labor "may go too fast for society" and advocated for government retraining incentives and local retraining programs. JPMorgan has already displaced workers through AI but retrained them for other roles, demonstrating corporate ability to manage transition while acknowledging broader societal risks. Dimon's position marks a notable shift among financial elites toward acknowledging AI unemployment as a systemic threat requiring policy intervention.
Fortune • Feb 26
FINANCE LABOR POSTLABOR
Citrini's AI Job Loss Scenario Faces Pushback From Global Investors, Economists
A Citrini Research report projecting mass white-collar unemployment by 2028 due to AI adoption triggered significant market volatility and global investor backlash. The report modeled a scenario where rapid AI productivity gains trigger corporate layoffs that erode consumer demand, creating a negative feedback loop as companies cut staff to boost margins and redirect resources into AI investment. The analysis cited DoorDash as vulnerable to AI agents enabling direct courier-customer coordination at lower cost. While some economists criticized the report's assumptions as extreme, the market reaction signals investor anxiety about AI-driven labor displacement and potential economic destabilization.
Bloomberg • Feb 26
FINANCE LABOR POSTLABOR
Companies cutting jobs as investments shift toward AI
Goldman Sachs economists estimate AI was responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 monthly net job losses in U.S. industries most exposed to automation last year, and accounted for 7% of total planned layoffs in January 2026. The report documents specific workforce reductions: Dow plans to cut 4,500 jobs (13% of workforce) using automation and AI; Allianz plans to cut 1,800 travel insurance jobs as AI replaces manual processes; Pinterest and Nike have made AI-linked cuts. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook warned the Fed may be unable to counter this AI-driven unemployment trend through monetary policy alone.
Reuters • Feb 26
CORPORATE FINANCE LABOR
OpenAI COO says 'we have not yet really seen AI penetrate enterprise business processes'
OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap stated that AI has not achieved meaningful penetration of enterprise business processes despite industry hype. Days later, OpenAI announced the "Frontier Alliance" — partnerships with Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini to deploy its agentic AI platform in enterprise environments. The company also signed an enterprise compute contract.
TechCrunch • Feb 25
CORPORATE NEOCORP LABOR
Destitute survivors of south-east Asia's cyberscam farms an 'international crisis'
The Guardian reports that thousands of survivors freed from forced-labor cyberscam compounds across Southeast Asia are now destitute and sleeping on streets, with aid agencies warning of an international humanitarian crisis. Victims trafficked into compounds to conduct global cryptocurrency and investment scams lack passports, money, and support from Cambodian authorities who have failed to offer victim screening or other assistance.
The Guardian • Feb 25
CORPORATE FINANCE INEQUALITY
Meta's AI sending 'junk' tips to DoJ, US child abuse investigators say
Meta's AI-powered content moderation systems are flooding US law enforcement with low-quality, unreliable reports about child sexual abuse material, according to officers from the Internet Crimes Against Children task force. The flood of useless tips is draining investigative resources and hindering actual cases. The issue emerged during a New Mexico lawsuit against Meta over child safety on its platforms, where the company has defended its cooperation with law enforcement while facing questions about whether its automated detection systems create more noise than signal.
The Guardian • Feb 25
SURVEILLANCE SOCIAL TECH
America's Digital Empire Has a Trust Problem
The Trump administration's weaponization of American hyperscaler infrastructure for foreign policy objectives is accelerating global efforts to reduce dependence on US tech giants, according to Council on Foreign Relations analysis. Nations are pursuing digital sovereignty through hybrid strategies that balance the technological dominance of American and Chinese cloud providers against the risks of foreign control. Russia's experience illustrates the cost: three years after Western tech withdrawal, the country faces a structural deficit requiring 30,000 new data center racks annually while projecting only 4,600 additions in 2025.
Council on Foreign Relations • Feb 25
CORPORATE GEOPOLITICS TECH
Teenager first in SA to be prosecuted for allegedly creating deepfake images
William Hamish Yeates, 19, became the first person in South Australia prosecuted under 2024 Commonwealth laws criminalizing non-consensual deepfake pornography. He faces eight counts of creating or altering sexual material without consent for allegedly generating explicit deepfake images of a teenage girl and distributing them on social media. The case marks an early enforcement action against AI-generated intimate image abuse under Australia's federal deepfake legislation.
ABC News • Feb 25
PRIVACY REGULATION CYBERCRIME
Can A.I. Detection Tools Really Spot Fake Images and Videos?
The New York Times conducted over 1,000 tests of AI detection tools used to verify content authenticity online, finding several capabilities alongside significant weaknesses. The testing reveals the uneven effectiveness of current detection technologies as synthetic media proliferation accelerates ahead of 2026 elections. Newsrooms and platforms are increasing investment in verification teams and forensic methods, but detection remains a game of catch-up against rapidly evolving generation tools.
The New York Times • Feb 25
MEMETIC TECH AI
Tech Companies Shouldn't Be Bullied Into Doing Surveillance
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that the Secretary of Defense has issued an ultimatum to AI company Anthropic, threatening to terminate government contracts if the company does not make its technology available to the U.S. military without use restrictions. The EFF is urging Anthropic to refuse the demands and maintain its principles against surveillance applications.
Electronic Frontier Foundation • Feb 25
CORPORATE GEOPOLITICS SURVEILLANCE
AP report: Hegseth warns Anthropic to let the military use company's AI tech as it sees fit
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei a Friday deadline to allow unrestricted military use of the company's AI technology or risk losing its Pentagon contract. The ultimatum applies to a $200 million defense contract awarded last summer alongside Google, OpenAI, and xAI. Pentagon officials threatened to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk or invoke the Defense Production Act to compel compliance. The pressure campaign follows months of tension between Anthropic's state-level AI regulation advocacy and the administration's deregulation agenda.
PBS News • Feb 25
CORPORATE GEOPOLITICS SURVEILLANCE
Breaking encryption with a quantum computer just got 10 times easier
Researchers have developed a more efficient quantum computing approach using qLDPC codes that reduces qubit requirements for breaking RSA encryption by an order of magnitude. The new method enables qubits to interact beyond nearest neighbors, increasing information density and reducing the estimated qubit count from millions to approximately 100,000.
New Scientist • Feb 25
CYBERWAR INFRASTRUCTURE CYBERSECURITY
Facial recognition error prompts police to arrest Asian man for burglary 100 miles away
Thames Valley Police arrested Alvi Choudhury after automated facial recognition software falsely matched him with footage of a burglary suspect in Milton Keynes, 100 miles away. The match was made despite the suspect appearing "10 years younger" with clear physical differences. Choudhury, who was held for 17 hours before being cleared, is claiming damages and calling for transparency about wrongful arrests involving facial recognition technology. The case adds to documented concerns about demographic bias in automated facial recognition systems.
The Guardian • Feb 25
INEQUALITY SURVEILLANCE PRIVACY
Fed's Cook says AI triggering big changes, sees possible short-term unemployment rise
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook warned that artificial intelligence represents the most significant reorganization of work in generations, cautioning that job displacement may precede creation and could temporarily raise unemployment even as productivity gains materialize. She noted AI investment may initially push neutral interest rates higher before potentially lowering them if gains concentrate among the wealthy, creating monetary policy trade-offs that traditional demand-side tools cannot address.
Reuters • Feb 25
FINANCE LABOR AUTOMATION
Ministers urged to impose temporary ban on crypto political donations
UK Parliament's Joint Committee on National Security Strategy demanded a moratorium on cryptocurrency political donations until safeguards against foreign interference are implemented. The warning comes after the Representation of the People bill omitted crypto donation restrictions despite concerns that digital assets enable malign actors to conceal funding sources, complicating Electoral Commission and law enforcement oversight capabilities.
The Guardian • Feb 25
GEOPOLITICS CRYPTO FINANCE
Companies That Signal They Are Replacing Workers With AI: HP, Klarna
Major corporations including HP, Amazon, and Klarna are publicly acknowledging AI-driven workforce reductions as automation enables strategic restructuring. HP CEO Enrique Lores projected 30% of roles could be automated within five years; Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski credited AI for operating with one-third fewer employees while maintaining human connection roles. The transparency marks a shift from earlier industry reluctance to attribute layoffs directly to automation technology.
Business Insider • Feb 25
CORPORATE LABOR POSTLABOR
CrowdStrike says attackers are moving through networks in under 30 minutes
CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report found the average time from intrusion to lateral network movement plummeted to 29 minutes in 2025, a 65% increase in attack speed. State-sponsored threat actors increased cloud intrusion activity by 266% while AI-enabled adversary activity surged 89%. Chinese threat groups achieved immediate system access in two-thirds of vulnerability exploitations, with 40% targeting edge devices. North Korea's Lazarus Group orchestrated the largest cryptocurrency theft in history stealing $1.46 billion from Bybit.
CyberScoop • Feb 24
CYBERCRIME CYBERWAR AI
600+ FortiGate Devices Hacked by AI-Armed Amateur
A Russian-speaking threat actor used commercial generative AI tools to compromise more than 600 Fortinet FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks. Researchers from Amazon Web Services found the attacker was not state-sponsored but used LLMs to automate attack scripting, credential extraction, and lateral movement. The campaign exploited exposed management ports and weak credentials, with AI enabling the low-skilled actor to achieve outcomes previously requiring substantial technical expertise.
Dark Reading • Feb 24
CYBERCRIME CYBERWAR AI
US antitrust enforcers to revamp guidelines on rivals collaborating
The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry to develop updated antitrust guidance for businesses on competitor collaborations, including data sharing and pricing information exchange. The agencies seek input by April 24 on how new technologies have changed competitive dynamics, building on 2000-era guidelines that predate modern data aggregation and AI-driven business alliances.
Reuters • Feb 24
CORPORATE ANTITRUST REGULATION
I.R.S. Tactics Against Meta Open a New Front in the Corporate Tax Fight
The Internal Revenue Service is using real-world profit data to challenge how Meta and other large technology companies value intellectual property moved offshore, opening a new front in the government's battle against corporate tax avoidance. The agency is scrutinizing the "Double Irish" arrangement and transfer pricing mechanisms that allowed Meta to relocate IP rights to Ireland while its U.S. parent maintained control of core technologies, questioning whether offshore subsidiaries paid adequate consideration for assets that generate billions in global revenue.
The New York Times • Feb 24
CORPORATE GEOPOLITICS FINANCE
Will Trump's DOJ actually take on Ticketmaster?
Gail Slater, who led the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, departed just weeks before the agency is set to face trial against Live Nation, creating uncertainty around federal enforcement in one of the year's most significant antitrust cases. At least 40 states joined the DOJ lawsuit, and state attorneys general have signaled they will continue the litigation regardless of federal participation, with California's top antitrust enforcer Paula Blizzard affirming trial will proceed March 2.
The Verge • Feb 24
CORPORATE ANTITRUST GEOPOLITICS
If Big Tech cared about fighting AI slop, we wouldn't be drowning in it
Analysis argues that C2PA provenance standards and platform labeling efforts are failing to stem AI-generated "slop" flooding social media because adoption remains fragmented and detection tools cannot match industrial-scale synthetic content production. Platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and Meta have only partially implemented authentication systems while X has abandoned C2PA entirely following Musk's acquisition, allowing millions of daily users to remain unprotected from engagement-optimized synthetic media that buries authentic creator content.
The Verge • Feb 24
CORPORATE SURVEILLANCE SOCIAL
AI robots may outnumber workers in a few decades as firms ramp up investment
Citi predicts AI robots could exceed 4 billion by 2050, with payback periods under 10 weeks for a $15,000 robot replacing a $41/hour worker. AI played a role in 55,000 U.S. layoffs. Microsoft's Work Trend Index shows 80% of leaders expect AI agents integrated into their strategy within 12-18 months. Firms including Amazon, Salesforce, Accenture, Heineken, and Lufthansa cited AI in thousands of role eliminations.
CNBC • Feb 24
CORPORATE LABOR AUTOMATION