Workers describe a deteriorating culture at Block, the company behind Square and Cash App, where layoffs continue and employees are expected to use AI tools daily. After hundreds of workers were laid off in early February from Jack Dorsey's Block, some of the people remaining at the company say the internal culture has devolved to a point where performance anxiety is running rampant, using generative AI is required, and overall morale is rapidly deteriorating. Block is the parent company behind the merchant payment processor Square and the payment app Cash App. "Morale is probably the worst I've felt in four years," reads an employee complaint submitted to Dorsey in a recent all-hands meeting, a transcript of which was seen by WIRED. "The overarching culture at Block is crumbling."

San Francisco's AI startups are pushing workers to grind endlessly, hinting at pressures soon hitting other sectors Not long after the terms "996" and "grindcore" entered the popular lexicon, people started telling me stories about what was happening at startups in San Francisco, ground zero for the artificial intelligence economy. There was the one about the founder who hadn't taken a weekend off in more than six months. The woman who joked that she'd given up her social life to work at a prestigious AI company. Or the employees who had started taking their shoes off in the office because, well, if you were going to be there for at least 12 hours a day, six days a week, wouldn't you rather be wearing slippers? "If you go to a cafe on a Sunday, everyone is working," says Sanju Lokuhitige, the co-founder of Mythril, a pre-seed-stage AI startup, who moved to San Francisco in November to be closer to the action.

New York state has required companies to disclose if "technological innovation or automation" was the cause of job loss for nearly a year. Over 160 companies in New York state have filed notices of mass layoffs since last March. None--in a group that includes Amazon, Goldman Sachs, and other employers that are adopting AI tools --attributed their workforce cuts in those filings to "technological innovation or automation." That option was added 11 months ago to a required question on paperwork that businesses with 50 or more employees must file with the state to notify of sizable job losses. New York's Department of Labor told WIRED that, as of the end of January, no employer had marked tech as the reason for their workforce reduction.

The Washington Post is the latest legacy news organization to lay off race-based journalists, following others like CBS News, NBC News, The Los Angeles Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Labor unions urge Gov. Gavin Newsom, California lawmakers to rein in artificial intelligence Lorena Gonzalez, with the California Labor Federation, supports legislation to protect workers from AI. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Labor unions urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to protect workers from AI-driven job losses and workplace surveillance.

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Amazon's latest round of layoffs will affect 16,000 workers The news was first leaked in an email mistakenly sent early to workers. Sydney, Australia - 2022-07-22 Amazon prime boxes and envelopes delivered to a front door of residential building. Amazon has confirmed that it's letting go of 16,000 workers and employees across its organization. In an announcement by company SVP Beth Galetti, she explained that Amazon was going through organizational changes to reduce layers and remove bureaucracy. Affected employees in the US will be given 90 days to look for another internal role and will receive severance pay if they do not find any.

Meta's Layoffs Leave Supernatural Fitness Users in Mourning Users of the VR fitness service are distraught that Supernatural has had its staff cut and won't receive any more content updates. I hear a stranger's heavy breathing through the rollicking dude-bro anthem blasting my eardrums, courtesy of the pop-rock band Imagine Dragons. Me and two people I just met are punching digital blocks that fly at our heads in the VR workout platform Supernatural . My new friends have nameplates floating above their heads that say Chip and Alisa. That's all I know about them.

Stocks from the United States to Japan have risen sharply amid hopes that an end to the longest US government shutdown in history is imminent. US lawmakers on Sunday moved to end a five-week impasse over government funding, a boost for investors unnerved by signs of growing weakness in the US economy and the sky-high evaluations of firms involved in artificial intelligence. The funding package still needs to win final approval in the Senate and then pass the US House of Representatives, after which it would go to US President Donald Trump for his signature - a process expected to take days. Stock markets in the Asia Pacific made large gains on Monday, while futures in the US also rose in advance of stock exchanges reopening. South Korea's benchmark KOSPI led the gains, rising about 3 percent as of 4pm local time (07:00 GMT).

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The AI job cuts are here - or are they? Amazon's move this week to slash thousands of corporate jobs fed into a longstanding anxiety: that Artificial Intelligence is starting to replace workers. The tech giant joined a growing list of companies in the US that have pointed to AI technology as a reason behind layoffs. But some question whether AI is fully to blame - and have voiced scepticism that recent high-profile layoffs are a telling sign of the technology's effect on employment. Chegg, the online education firm, cited the new realities of AI as it announced a 45% reduction in workforce on Monday.