People use AI as psychedelic trip sitters
A growing number of people are using AI chatbots as “trip sitters” during psychedelic experiences, believing chatbots can provide affordable alternatives to in-person therapy. Experts warn this blend of AI therapy and psychedelics creates a “potent psychological cocktail” that can go badly awry.
Source: MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/01/1119513/ai-sit-trip-psychedelics
The great AI job displacement begins
The employment impact of AI is no longer theoretical. Entry-level UK jobs have dropped 32% since ChatGPT’s November 2022 launch, with graduate positions, apprenticeships, and junior roles now comprising just 25% of the job market, down from 28.9% in 2022. These roles traditionally served as stepping stones for young professionals entering the workforce.
Source: The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/30/uk-entry-level-jobs-chatgpt-launch-adzuna
Salesforce CEO reveals AI handles half the company’s work
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revealed that AI now handles 30-50% of his company’s work, following the elimination of over 1,000 roles this year. Benioff described this as a “digital labour revolution” that will bring “everything from AI agents to robots,” with CEOs needing to ensure “their values are in the right place.” A World Economic Forum survey suggests 40% of companies worldwide expect to shrink workforces due to AI adoption by 2030.
Source: TechRepublic
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-ai-automation
Xbox executive’s tone-deaf AI advice for laid-off workers
Microsoft’s gaming layoffs reached new heights of corporate insensitivity when Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Turnbull suggested laid-off workers use AI chatbots to manage their emotions. In a now-deleted LinkedIn post, Turnbull recommended that employees feeling “overwhelmed” by job loss should turn to ChatGPT and Copilot for career advice and resume help. The timing was particularly galling given Microsoft’s announcement of sweeping layoffs affecting as many as 9,100 employees across the company.
Source: The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/698468/xbox-exec-reccommends-ai-to-laid-off-staff
Meta launches superintelligence labs amid talent wars
The battle for AI expertise has intensified, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg launching Meta Superintelligence Labs under former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang as chief AI officer, alongside former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. This follows weeks of Meta’s aggressive talent-poaching efforts targeting OpenAI researchers.
Source: Bloomberg
Sam Altman fires back at Meta’s talent poaching
OpenAI’s Sam Altman fired back in an internal Slack message, dismissing Meta’s recruiting as “somewhat distasteful” and declaring that “missionaries will beat mercenaries.” Altman hinted at compensation reviews for the entire research organisation, stating that AI Twitter is “toxic” and predicting things will get “even crazier” as the industry evolves.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altman-meta-ai-talent-poaching-spree-leaked-messages
Ilya Sutskever takes CEO role at Safe Superintelligence
Ilya Sutskever confirmed he’s stepping into the CEO role at Safe Superintelligence following Daniel Gross’s departure to join Meta, with the startup valued at $32 billion resisting acquisition attempts. Sutskever addressed rumors of companies looking to acquire them, saying they are “flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through.”
Source: TechCrunch
China’s AI startup paradise in Hangzhou
While Silicon Valley dominates headlines, Hangzhou has quietly become the epicentre of China’s AI frenzy. In the quiet suburb of Liangzhu, aspiring founders pitch tech startups at backyard events while people slouch over laptops drinking Frappuccinos. “People come here to explore their own possibilities,” said Felix Tao, a former Facebook and Alibaba employee hosting local events.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/technology/china-artificial-intelligence-hangzhou.html
Academics hide AI prompts to manipulate peer review
Researchers are employing a novel strategy to influence peer review: hiding prompts designed to make AI tools deliver positive feedback on their papers. Nikkei Asia discovered 17 papers on arXiv containing hidden AI prompts from authors affiliated with 14 institutions across eight countries, including Japan’s Waseda University, South Korea’s KAIST, Columbia University, and the University of Washington.
Source: TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/06/researchers-seek-to-influence-peer-review-with-hidden-ai-prompts/
Scientists create AI that mimics human thinking
An international team has developed “Centaur,” a ChatGPT-like system that can participate in psychological experiments and behave as if it has a human mind. The researchers trained their large language model on 10 million psychology experiment questions, and it now answers much like humans do, complete with cognitive biases and errors.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/science/ai-psychology-mind.html
Quantum computers achieve exponential breakthrough
Researchers achieved the “holy grail” of quantum computing: an exponential speedup that’s unconditional. Using IBM’s 127-qubit processors, the USC and Johns Hopkins team tackled a variation of Simon’s problem, demonstrating quantum machines breaking free from classical limitations for real. Though the result “doesn’t have practical applications beyond winning guessing games,” it represents a fundamental milestone.
Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250629033459.htm
The loneliness economy and AI companions
Tech companies are marketing AI companions to lonely people, promising relief through digital connection. As one observer noted while seeing AI companion ads on Instagram, this represents a “loneliness doom loop” where technology that should enhance human capability instead replaces thinking, feeling, and problem-solving entirely.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/opinion/loneliness-ai-social-media.html
Anthropic debunks AI companionship myths
Research shows that despite media narratives about AI relationships, only 2.9% of Claude conversations involve emotional support or companionship, with roleplay comprising less than 0.5% of interactions. The vast majority relates to work and productivity, contradicting widespread assumptions about AI chatbot usage patterns.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/tolan-chatbot-ai-companion
AI search devastates news publisher traffic
News publishers are losing the battle against AI-powered search as referrals from ChatGPT grow but fail to offset massive traffic declines. Since Google’s AI Overviews launched in May 2024, news searches resulting in no click-throughs to websites have grown from 56% to nearly 69% as of May 2025. News-related prompts in ChatGPT grew 212% from January 2024 through May 2025.
Source: TechCrunch
David Brooks warns against AI making us dumber
AI isn’t going anywhere, so the crucial question is one of motivation. David Brooks argues that students and all of us need to consider whether we “really care about clearing the schedule or becoming educated.” He advocates for more stigma around using AI to “think less” rather than leveraging it to explore new realms and learn new things.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/opinion/aritificial-intelligence-education.html
Robinhood offers tokenized access to private AI companies
Tech companies are circumventing investor protection rules by offering “tokens” that supposedly reflect valuations of privately held AI startups like OpenAI and SpaceX. Robinhood is pitching these tokens as stocklike exposure to companies average people can’t normally invest in, but they’re only available to EU investors to avoid breaking American laws.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/business/dealbook/tokenization-robinhood-openai-spacex.html
Amazon deploys its millionth warehouse robot
Amazon reached a milestone with its millionth warehouse robot, putting the company on track to have equal numbers of robots and human workers. The tech giant’s 75% of global deliveries are now robot-assisted, with a new AI model called DeepFleet increasing robotic fleet speed by 10%.
Source: TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/amazon-deploys-its-1-millionth-robot-releases-generative-ai-model/
X pilots AI chatbots for Community Notes
X is piloting AI chatbots to generate Community Notes, expanding Elon Musk’s fact-checking program beyond human contributors. Whether AI fact-checkers prove helpful or harmful remains to be seen as Meta, TikTok, and YouTube pursue similar community-sourced initiatives.
Source: TechCrunch
Enterprise leaders prepare APIs for AI agents
Enterprise leaders recognize that the agentic AI age requires rebuilding software infrastructure. “We need to build the kind of APIs that will work well with agents, because agents are the ones that are now going to interact with APIs, not humans,” said Intuit’s Merrin Kurian, highlighting the fundamental shift required as AI agents become mainstream.
Source: VentureBeat
Smart glasses transcribe conversations in real-time
TranscribeGlass created 36-gram smart eyeglasses that transcribe conversations and project subtitles onto glass for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The device uses phone microphones and AI to create real-time subtitles, with future features including language translation and tone analysis.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/these-translating-ai-glasses-put-subtitles-on-the-world
Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default
Cloudflare is ending the AI scraping free-for-all by blocking AI crawlers by default and launching a Pay Per Crawl programme. The infrastructure firm recognises that AI-focused web crawlers can strain servers and knock websites offline with DDoS-like frequency.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-blocks-ai-crawlers-default
Grammarly acquires AI email client Superhuman
Grammarly acquired email client Superhuman in a push to build out its AI productivity suite, though financial terms weren’t disclosed. Superhuman, valued at $825 million, raised over $114 million from backers including a16z and Tiger Global.
Source: TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/grammarly-acquires-ai-email-client-superhuman/
Industry warns against AI agent hype
Industry leaders are warning against “agentwashing” as companies slap the “agent” label on everything from simple scripts to sophisticated AI workflows. With no shared definition, this creates room for marketing basic automation as advanced AI, inviting customer disappointment and backlash.
Source: MIT Technology Review
UK demands AI institute overhaul for defense focus
UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle demanded an overhaul of the Alan Turing Institute, calling for new leadership and greater focus on defense, national security, and “sovereign capabilities.” The move reflects growing government concern about AI’s strategic implications.
Source: The Guardian
VC predicts AI will eat McKinsey’s lunch
Veteran investor Navin Chaddha of Mayfield believes AI will create “software-like margins” in traditionally labour-intensive sectors like consulting, law, and accounting. His prediction: “AI will eat McKinsey’s lunch — but not today.” Chaddha argues startups should target neglected markets rather than compete head-to-head with giants like Accenture.
Source: TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/29/why-ai-will-eat-mckinseys-lunch-but-not-today/
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