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WSJ: Coinbase Laying Off 14% of Staff, Eliminating ‘Pure Managers’ (May 5, 2026)
Coinbase is cutting about 700 employees, roughly 14% of staff, and flattening its structure to five layers below the C-suite. Managers will take on individual work, oversee more direct reports, and the company will lean more on AI. -
Simon Willison: Learning on the Shop floor (May 11, 2026)
Shopify’s River coding agent works publicly in Slack channels, making conversations searchable, open, and collaborative, so employees learn by watching and jumping in. -
metr.org: Measuring the Self-Reported Impact of Early-2026 AI on Technical Worker Productivity (May 11, 2026)
A survey of 349 technical workers in early 2026 found median self-reported value gains of 1.4–2x, speed gains of 3x, and forecasts of 2.5x by March 2027. Results should be interpreted cautiously. -
James Shore: James Shore: You Need AI That Reduces Maintenance Costs (May 10, 2026)
AI coding agents can boost short-term output, but unless they cut maintenance costs proportionally, they add lasting maintenance burden that erodes long-term productivity. -
404 Media: Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain (May 11, 2026)
AI content has flooded everyday online spaces, making readers constantly question whether posts, images, or messages are human-made, and creating an exhausting, uncanny mental burden. -
the Guardian: AI-powered hacking has exploded into industrial-scale threat, Google says (May 11, 2026)
A Google report says AI-powered hacking jumped in three months to an industrial-scale threat, with criminals and state-linked actors using commercial models like Gemini, Claude, and OpenAI. -
The Chronicle of Higher Education: AI Will Make the Academic Article Obsolete (May 11, 2026)
AI agents automate cleaning, estimation, and updates, turning static papers into living manuscripts that refresh results. This democratizes large projects, creates publication and tenure dilemmas. Researchers needed to judge methods and supervise agents. -
WSJ: Microsoft CEO Takes Stand in Third Week of Elon Musk Megatrial Against OpenAI (May 11, 2026)
Satya Nadella testified in Elon Musk’s suit alleging OpenAI, its leaders, and Microsoft misled Musk, seeking leader removals and $180 billion. Nadella said Musk never raised concerns, and Microsoft backed OpenAI while trying to keep Altman, Brockman. -
Kyle Chan: China feared ChatGPT (May 5, 2026)
The US feared TikTok could secretly spread content against national interests, while China feared ChatGPT might do the same. Research by @Jinghan_Zeng highlights this ironic, mirrored, and reciprocal concern. -
WSJ: PayPal to Cut 20% of Staff Amid Turnaround Push (May 5, 2026)
PayPal will cut 20% of its staff, about 4,760 jobs, over the next two to three years, to cut costs and speed AI adoption.