Middle Manager Layoffs: From Google to EY, mid-level execs under axe - Cultural re-evaluation? - Apr 13, 2025

Enjoy your complimentary premium membership (No paywall)͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ 

Report Spam View online | Unsubscribe (one-click)

- The top 25 stories curated by editors and fellow readers! Editor's Pick There is a vast hidden workforce behind AI - The Economist (No paywall) WHEN DEEPSEEK, a hotshot Chinese firm, released its cheap large language model late last year it overturned long-standing assumptions about what it will take to build the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI). This will matter to whoever comes out on top in the epic global battle for AI supremacy. Developers are now reconsidering how much hardware, energy and data are needed. Yet another, less discussed, input in machine intelligence is in flux too: the workforce. Continued here Work Middle Manager Layoffs: From Google to EY, mid-level execs under axe - Cultural re-evaluation? Middle Manager Layoffs : Middle managers working under big firms are now facing the layoff heat. In the name of efficiency, major companies across various sectors are now cutting jobs, reducing pay, and also demoting long-serving professionals. Work Trump and Some of His Cabinet Members Attend U.F.C. Fight in Miami When Mr. Trump first arrived, he tried to shake Mr. Kennedy’s hand; Mr. Kennedy was looking in the other direction. Mr. Trump then walked past the outstretched hand of Ms. Hines, moving his gaze past her entirely despite appearing to see her. Work Alvin Lucier is still making music four years after his death thanks to an artificial brain In a darkened room, a fractured symphony of rattles, hums and warbles bounces off the walls - like an orchestra tuning up in some parallel universe. But there's not a musician in sight. If you look closely there is a small fragment of a performer. Albeit one without a pulse. Work What Leaders Still Get Wrong About Customer Portfolio Management In traditional market segmentation, unique populations of customers are segmented and targeted using differentiated products and services -- be it a soup that is thicker or a bank that is friendlier. Work This tiny screw is powering the humanoid robot revolution The humanoid robotics revolution is just around the corner. Test models are already working in factories alongside human beings across the world, while AI companies develop new foundation models designed to help robots navigate their environments as easily as humans do. Work What to Know About Trump's Antitrust Efforts Against Tech Giants “I think that they may not have fully focused on how much the first Trump presidency had to do with setting in motion this re-examination of tech,” said Bill Kovacic, a former F.T.C. chairman. Work Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong? Even as prescriptions rise to a record high, some experts have begun to question our assumptions about the condition -- and how to treat it. Work A CautionaryTale of 408 Tentacles Now, a year after the cephalopod squad became famous, what once seemed like a modern fairy tale might be better read as a cautionary one — about the power of social media, the perils of fame and the challenges involved in living with (and loving) creatures that are made for a world far removed from our own. Work From jobs to dates: How San Francisco's tech workers are using robot taxis to leave handwritten notes In a twist of old-school charm meets sci-fi transit, recruiters and those looking for a date have found a new medium: robotaxis. According to a report by The Washington Post, robotaxis are quirkily being used to leave handwritten notes. Work The Treasury Secretary Is Wrong About How Most Retirees See the Stock Market On the NBC program “Meet the Press,” referring to those who have “put away for years in their savings account,” he said the following: “I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’s happening.” Work U.S. Prepares to Challenge Meta's Social Media Dominance Still, the F.T.C. faces an uphill battle to prove its case, legal experts said. The government’s legal argument hinges on showing that Meta would not be as dominant, and would not have stayed as dominant, if it hadn’t acquired Instagram and WhatsApp — a hypothetical situation that is difficult to prove because many factors have played into the company’s growth. Work The Many Ways Kennedy Is Already Undermining Vaccines The Food and Drug Administration canceled an open meeting on flu vaccines with scientific advisers, later holding it behind closed doors. A top official paused the agency’s review of Novavax’s Covid vaccine. In a televised interview last week, Mr. Kennedy said falsely that similarly created vaccines don’t work against respiratory viruses. Work Defense Department scraps $5.1B worth of technology and consulting contracts The U.S. Defense Department is scrapping a set of technology and consulting contracts worth $5.1 billion. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed officials to make the cuts in a Thursday memorandum. Work Trump's changing tariffs causes panic buying and paralysis Louis Lopez, an elevator mechanic in New York City, said he was so worried about the economy he had started to squirrel away cash under the mattress. But he was also holding shopping bags with new work clothes and a pair of Nike trainers for the summer. Work It Never Happened but the Picture Says It Did: 28 Fake Images That Fooled the World From the pope in a puffer to the Princess of Wales and family, baby Hitler to Mussolini on horseback, people have always manipulated photographs, whether for political power, image control - or just for fun ... Work Veritasium: What Everyone Gets Wrong About AI and Learning - Derek Muller Explains AI is advancing faster than anyone predicted--and it's already reshaping industries around the world. But what does that mean for education? Work Tesla rival BYD launches five-minute battery in $30,000 model BYD has launched the first electric cars to feature its five-minute charging battery, just weeks after unveiling the groundbreaking technology. Work 12 former OpenAI employees asked to be heard in Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company; one calls Sam Altman a 'person of low integrity' BYChris Jung/NurPhoto via Getty Images Work Video: Did Trump Manipulate the Stock Market? President Trump’s post on social media caused the stock market to respond in an unusual way. Rob Copeland, a finance reporter for The New York Times, explains whether this could be considered market manipulation by the president. Work OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence reportedly valued at $32B Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup led by OpenAI's co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised an additional $2 billion in funding at a $32 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. Work A Devastating Trade Spat With China Shows Few Signs of Abating Mr. Trump has said he would like to speak with Mr. Xi, but he has stopped short of requesting a phone call, believing that it is the Chinese government’s turn to ask for such a call, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump officials say that dozens of countries have reached out to the administration about negotiations since the levies were imposed. China did not, and instead responded with harsh words and tariffs of its own. Work Texas Muslims Want to Build Homes and a Mosque. Gov. Greg Abbott Says No. Over that time, the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has swelled by more than 60 percent, to around 8.3 million. Its growth has included a diverse influx of new Texans from all over the world, many of them Muslim, but also Hindu, Christian and Jewish. Work Adolescence Star Owen Cooper Says He's Avoided Watching His Own Show, Calls School Screenings 'Nightmare' Netflix's British drama Adolescence, by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, explores the digital world's impact on young boys. Owen Cooper stars as Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old accused of murder. Work Trump Has Added Risk to the Surest Bet in Global Finance Last week, the yield on the closely watched 10-year Treasury bond soared to roughly 4.5 percent from just below 4 percent — the most pronounced spike in nearly a quarter century. At the same time, the value of the American dollar has been falling, even as tariffs would normally be expected to push it up. Work Opinion | America Is Learning the Wrong Lesson from Elon Musk's Success Intimidation doesn't elevate performance; it undermines people. Work How an Arkansas City Became an Epicenter of the Biking World Over more than a decade, Tom and Steuart Walton, grandsons of the Walmart founder, have steered at least $74 million through the family foundation toward the construction of 163 miles of paths and trails for recreation and competition. Those arteries now snake through the city, connecting to hundreds of trails in the surrounding mountains. Work How Should You Invest in 529 College Savings Plans During Market Swings? If you have money in a 529 college savings plan — or in another type of investment account — now is the time to reassess whether your mix of stocks and bonds are appropriate for your time frame and your stomach for risk. Work Ten things we learned from Anthony Albanese's speech at the Labor party campaign launch And if you were wondering what got the Labor faithful in the room excited? The biggest applause came when Albanese talked about free Tafe, the new policies outlined above, and his government's decision to "stop treating equality for women as an afterthought or a curiosity and make it an economic and social priority". Work Putting mirrors in space is a dangerous climate distraction environmentOpinion Work Nobu Matsuhisa: Id watch my mentor making sushi and copy him under the table My father died in a car accident when I was seven. Whenever I missed him, I would look in the family photo album at this picture of when he had gone to Palau. He was an architect and had gone to source lumber for his work. It made me dream of going abroad someday and making him proud. Work Is the CEO of the heavily funded humanoid robot startup Figure AI exaggerating his startup's work with BMW? BYCourtesy of Figure Work United States is no longer a safe destination for international students One cannot underestimate the precarity that orders the lives of international students in the United States. I remember making my maiden journey from Kolkata to upstate New York as an international student to pursue an undergraduate degree at a small liberal arts college. Work Ecuador to deliver verdict on 'war on drugs' in knife-edge presidential runoff On Wednesday, 14 Democratic members of the US Congress sent a letter to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, expressing concern that Noboa might not accept the results if he loses: "It's therefore imperative that you send a clear message to the government of Ecuador and other Ecuadorian leaders emphasising the need for a free, fair and transparent electoral process, and noting that, if electoral observers determine these conditions to be met, the outcome of the election must be respected," they wrote. Work How Much Are Tariffs on Chinese Goods? It's Trickier Than You Think. The escalating trade war between the United States and China has created deep uncertainty for U.S. companies that rely on Chinese suppliers. Work Sean 'Diddy' Combs Incarcerated: Bed Checks, Monotony and Jailhouse Lasagna He is facing years in prison if convicted on the racketeering and sex trafficking charges he faces when his trial begins next month. His lawyers argued strenuously after his arrest last September that Mr. Combs should be free until trial. Work Small Language Models Are the New Rage, Researchers Say The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Large language models work well because they're so large. Work How to Structure a B2B Marketplace Venture Companies setting up a business-to-business marketplace to make transactions more efficient for buyers and sellers should carefully consider the best ownership structure. Work Under the banks' towers, Frankfurt's humble water houses bring the city together FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Frankfurt has become Germany's financial capital, known for the country's only high-rise skyline. But look closer to the ground and you'll find a tradition that brings rich and poor, bankers and punks, together. Work A Congressional Outsider Becomes the Establishment Pick for Oakland Mayor Ms. Lee is still considered the heavy favorite in the field of 10 candidates. But Mr. Taylor, 47, recently surpassed her in fund-raising and landed the endorsement of the editorial board at The San Francisco Chronicle. “Oakland is broken,” Mr. Taylor often says on the campaign trail, a message that has resonated with some voters. Work DOGE Is Far Short of Its Goal, and Still Overstating Its Progress On its website, the Department of Government Efficiency claims to have saved $150 billion in federal spending. As of early April, however, it has provided receipt-level breakdowns for less than 40 percent of that amount. Work Outback publican finds hostelry coated in mud as residents return to tiny Queensland outpost after flooding Senior Constable Chris Seng, the only police officer in Adavale, teamed up with another resident to ferry people to safety using a tinnie that hadn’t been started in years. He almost got swept away by fast-moving waters. Work Battle of the election 'sugar hits': Labor and Coalition announce tax plans at duelling campaign launches The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the Coalition was "making this up as they go, because in their usual shambolic way", noting the Liberals had opposed Labor's smaller tax cuts. Work Billionaires Dream of Building Utopian Techno-City in Greenland The 'freedom city' is the latest effort to create stateless cities with minimal corporate regulation. Work Xi Jinping Travels to Southeast Asia Amid Tariff War with U.S. For the past decade, Beijing has engaged in a huge push to extend its economic and political influence across Southeast Asia. China is now the region’s most important trading partner. Senior officials, including Mr. Xi, regularly travel there. Work How Brexit, a Startling Act of Economic Self-Harm, Foreshadowed Trump's Tariffs “The fundamental issue remains the breach with our biggest trading partner,” Mr. Malloch Brown said, adding, “If the U.K. ends up in the arms of Europe because neither of them can work with the U.S. anymore, that’s only half a victory.” Work Opinion | 'You Try to Build Anything, and You're Stepping Into Quicksand' The difference between those two processes is, well, process. Over decades, Democrats and Republicans alike came to embrace the virtues of delay. Delay allows for the gathering of information, the input of affected communities, the thinking through of possible consequences and fidelity to process — and all of that, together, leads to better policy. Or so the thinking went. Work Ten things we learned from Peter Dutton's speech at the Liberal party campaign launch He said the controversial plan, which is unlikely to deliver a single power plant until the late 2030s, would make electricity bills cheaper and would not result in national parks, coastlines and farmland being covered in industrial-scale solar farms and windfarms. Work Nine-year-old boy dies after accidental shooting near Goulburn in rural NSW Paramedics treated child for serious neck injuries but he died at the scene, police say Work Exclusive: Chinese suppliers are offering U.S. Amazon sellers a tariff solution--but it's not legal BYAlex Wong/Getty Images Work AI 50: AI Agents Move Beyond Chat The 2025 edition of the AI 50 list shows how companies are using agents and reasoning models to take on real enterprise workflows. Artificial intelligence is entering a new phase in 2025. TradeBriefs Publications are read by over 100,000 Industry Executives About Us  |  Advertise  |  Privacy Policy Unsubscribe (one-click) You are receiving this mail because of your subscription with TradeBriefs. Our mailing address is 3110 Thomas Ave, Dallas, TX 75204, USA Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Followers Blog Archive ▼  2025 (43) ►  November (6) ►  October (10) ►  September (1) ►  July (2) ►  May (3) ▼  April (14) Marco Rubio's Soulless Crusade - Foreign Policy (N... How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Build Lasting Business... 5 Practical Ways to Cut Ultra-Processed Foods From... Engineers develop eco-friendly plastic from minera... Every Doctor Faces This Dilemma - Apr 21, 2025 Chief Financial Officer Prog by Singapore Manageme... From 'catch up' to 'catch us': How Google quietly ... Why Is Easter Always On A Sunday? - Apr 20, 2025 What Entrepreneurs Get Wrong About Strategic Plann... US begins inquiry into pharmaceutical and chip imp... Israeli Air Strike Destroys Part of Last Fully Fun... Doctors Say They've Found a Way to Clean the Micro... Middle Manager Layoffs: From Google to EY, mid-lev... CEOs Are Telling Their Employees to Embrace AI or ... ►  March (5) ►  January (2) ►  2024 (4) ►  December (4) ►  2023 (542) ►  December (2) ►  November (33) ►  October (27) ►  September (37) ►  August (45) ►  July (30) ►  June (73) ►  May (3) ►  April (33) ►  March (17) ►  February (84) ►  January (158) ►  2022 (387) ►  December (84) ►  November (41) ►  October (8) ►  September (142) ►  August (77) ►  July (1) ►  April (32) ►  March (1) ►  January (1) ►  2021 (226) ►  December (3) ►  September (21) ►  August (65) ►  July (32) ►  June (40) ►  May (32) ►  April (13) ►  March (20) ►  2020 (77) ►  July (1) ►  June (5) ►  May (12) ►  April (6) ►  February (17) ►  January (36) ►  2019 (828) ►  December (29) ►  November (93) ►  October (122) ►  September (129) ►  August (121) ►  July (86) ►  June (74) ►  May (102) ►  April (68) ►  March (4) ►  2010 (5) ►  March (5)