“EduChat, the #Education Department’s in-house generative #AITool, now used in every public #school in the state. In just over a year the #bot has gone from a shiny new thing, to a #product as crucial as a calculator and the internet.

Deputy Secretary #MartinGraham said #teachers and #principals each #report saving 90 minutes a week using #EduChat.

“Half of teachers have used it in 2197 schools, which is almost every school,” said department deputy secretary Martin Graham.

“The people who have used the #tool, there is a real light in their eyes ... it’s one of those things where if you use it, you find more uses for it.”

Launched as a trial in 50 schools, EduChat’s impact has been immediate, Graham said.

Teachers and principals report saving 90 minutes a week on tasks including #ActivityPlanning, #ResourceCreation, #ParentCommunications and #emails.

Students are also lapping it up: 89 per cent said EduChat helped them complete more work, and 85 per cent reported it improved the quality of their work.”

#WhiteCollar / #AI <https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/ai-is-in-every-nsw-public-school-classroom-is-that-a-good-thing-20250603-p5m4ml.html> (paywall) / <https://archive.md/GpD85>

@LokiTheCat “Economists say there aren't yet strong signs that AI is driving widespread layoffs across industries...”

Tracking reported sackings in #tech since ‘22; The sacking of #WhiteCollar ( 👈click) workers is measurable. One might conclude the Tech Oligarch aim is #ZeroWorkHours workers.

“Journalists at three of #RupertMurdoch’s Australian mastheads have reported deep concern after training sessions for an in-house #AITool called “NewsGPT” .

Staffers on #TheAustralian, #TheCourierMail and the #DailyTelegraph say the tool enables them to take on the persona of another writer, or to adopt a certain style, and NewsGPT will then generate a custom article.”

…

“In March the company’s chief technology officer, #JulianDelany, unveiled #NewsGPT and described it as a powerful tool.

A #NewsCorp Australia spokesperson told Weekly Beast: “As with many companies News Corp Australia is investigating how #AI technologies can enhance our workplaces rather than replace #jobs. Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZerHourWork <https://theguardian.com/media/2025/jun/20/news-corp-bets-big-on-ai-tools-but-journalists-voice-concerns>

“Australian workers are facing a major upheaval as #ArtificialIntelligence (AI) becomes a cheaper alternative to employing humans.

While the full impact of #AI is yet to be reflected in #JobAds or official employment statistics, both #employers and #employees warn the #technology is already reshaping the nation's #LabourMarket.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #Cost / #economics / #employment <https://abc.net.au/news/2025-06-21/ai-job-fears-accelerate-white-collar-grad-roles-threatened/105440772>

“The latest upheaval, brought by #ArtificialIntelligence (ai), is testing the #cockroaches as never before. #Advertising is one of the sectors most radically affected by ai so far. As such, adland offers a postcard from the future for other industries. Three lessons stand out.

The first is that the moat between human workers and chatbot rivals is narrower than most people think.

#CreativeWork is often seen as immune from #automation. Large language models (#LLM’s) are designed to predict the most likely answer, which is often the opposite of the most original one. The best ads remain too weird and wonderful for any machine to have dreamt up: consider the campaign that attached step-counters to chickens to advertise free-range eggs.

Yet this week in Cannes #TikTok, #Meta, #Google and other ad platforms showed off ai-powered features that can create passable video or rewrite ad copy at the click of a button. Their output will not win any awards. That does not matter. Most of the $1trn that is spent on ads each year goes towards workmanlike campaigns, rather than Cannes trophy-bait.

#SamAltman’s prediction that ai will one day be able to do 95% of #marketing may sound like boosterism for his firm, #OpenAI. But the inspired human-made content that people present as a counter-argument is firmly within the remaining 5%. Robots will content themselves with the rest.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://economist.com/leaders/2025/06/19/what-the-cockroaches-of-the-ad-world-teach-about-dealing-with-ai> (paywall) / <https://archive.md/z9IuJ>by

@tg9541 I have a label for the Corporate white collar sackings, it’s the #ZeroHourWork movement. I have enough to write about it. Cf #WhiteCollar tag.

“#Microsoft Corp. is planning to #axe thousands of #jobs, particularly in sales, as part of the company’s latest move to trim its workforce amid heavy spending on #ArtificialIntelligence.

The cuts are expected to be announced early next month, following the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year, according to people familiar with the matter. The reductions won’t exclusively affect #SalesTeams, and the timing could still change, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter.

The company declined to comment.

The #terminations would follow a previous round of #layoffs in May that hit 6,000 people and *fell hardest on #product and #engineering positions,* largely sparing customer-facing roles like sales and marketing.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #AI / #software / #SoftwareEngineering <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-18/microsoft-planning-thousands-more-job-cuts-aimed-at-salespeople> (paywall)
/ <https://archive.md/C1GhO>

“#Amazon boss tells staff AI means their jobs are at risk in coming years”

‘Jassy ended the memo by urging employees to be “curious about AI” and to “educate yourself” in the #technology and take training courses.’

“Those who embrace this #change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our #AI capabilities internally and deliver for #customers, will be well positioned to have high impact and help us #reinvent the company,”

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/18/amazon-boss-tells-staff-ai-means-their-jobs-are-at-risk-in-coming-years>

“Amazon has told its white collar employees that their jobs are at risk from artificial intelligence in the next few years, marking a rare explicit warning from a senior tech executive that AI will lead to lay-offs.”

“#AndyJassy, the ecommerce giant’s chief executive, told employees in a memo on Tuesday that the company was deploying #AI across its #operations, particularly in its #logistics network, to help lower costs. He said the company wants to increase its use of AI, which would mean #JobLosses.”

“We will need *fewer people* doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing *other types of jobs*,” Jassy said. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will #reduce our total #CorporateWorkforce.”

From 2022, the introduction of #ChatGPT and #GenerativeAI has been building up within the corporate mindset. So too has the #ZeroWorkHours for White collar workers.

#ArtificialIntelligence / #Amazon / #WhiteCollar <https://archive.md/1R0ZL> / <https://www.ft.com/content/9e66ba5b-5403-4e82-b26b-8d72aadf95d4> (paywall)

These Flawless Crime Shows Are Way Better Than Fans Think (& They're An Absolute Must-Watch) #WhiteCollar #Bones #PersonOfInterest
https://www.cbr.com/perfect-crime-shows-must-watch-list/

“A job in industry is also now harder to attain. Modern #factories are high-tech, run by #engineers and #technicians. In the early 1980s #BlueCollar assemblers, machine operators and repair workers made up more than half of the #manufacturing workforce.

Today they account for less than a third. #Whitecollar professionals outnumber blue-collar factory-floor workers by a wide margin. Even once obtained, a #FactoryJob is far less likely to be unionised than in previous decades, with membership having fallen from one in four workers in the 1980s to less than one in ten today.

In order to find the modern equivalent of such jobs, we looked for #employment with the same traits. What offers decent #pay, #unionisation, requires no #degree and can soak up the male workforce?

The result: mechanics, repair technicians, security workers and the skilled trades.”

<https://archive.md/L1J7W> (paywall) / <https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/06/10/factory-work-is-overrated-here-are-the-jobs-of-the-future>

@ticho “is that even newsworthy”. You bet it is, if you follow the #WhiteCollar tag, you’ll see companies since December 2022 have been sacking workers in primarily white collar tech on the premise the AI alternative is a *ground breaking* revolution in intelligence that no human can match. So companies sack workers and go (buzz-word) AI-first.

The kinds of AI being hailed as revolutionary is generative like the ChatGTP product. Yet when this AI applied to an ancient game written in an 80s computer can beat it; you have go ask, yourself is the idea oversold?

@abandonwarering, @aj

@ewen and the sacked staff. If you follow through the #WhiteCollar AI thread back to 2022, you’ll see the numbers of staff being sacked in #tech hits low double digits per mention.

A double hit as you point out; Then they’re less likely to be picked up. This is different to a recession where mass sackings occur and when the economy picks up, employment booms again.

This time it’s a concerted effort to have #ZeroHourWork for humans.

“This latest generation of #AI could change every job. I don’t think that is too much of an exaggeration,” said Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK’s professional body for #HR and #People development.”

“Many #employers are cutting #jobs under the guise of #economic and #political uncertainty. But high profile examples of AI-driven #LayOffs in recent months, from #technology company #IBM to language learning app #Duolingo, are fuelling questions about whether a slash and burn of #Whitecollar roles is under way.”

#ZeroHourWork / #tech / #trend <https://www.ft.com/content/5009fd1e-85db-433f-aa2b-55d9b88b6481> (paywall) / <https://archive.md/00FPA>

“The #AIBoom has led to claims and concerns about a job wipeout caused by companies using AI to replace #work that had otherwise been done by #humans.

#DarioAmodei, the CEO of #Anthropic, the company behind the #GenerativeAI model #Claude, told Axios last week that AI could reduce entry-level #whitecollar jobs by 50% and result in 20% #unemployment in the next five years.

#TechWeenie / #ZeroHourWork <https://theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/09/us-attacks-on-science-and-research-a-great-gift-to-china-on-artificial-intelligence-former-openai-board-member-says>

“Judging by recent controversy around the gamified #language-learning app he co-founded, it is not just #AI that can misjudge communication. Last month, #vonAhn shared on LinkedIn an email he had sent to all staff announcing Duolingo was going “#AIFirst”. “I did not expect the amount of blowback,” he admits.

“Unbelievable,” wrote one LinkedIn commenter, “Cancelling my account NOW.” “Well, there goes my 1,098 day streak,” posted another.

The chief executive says many social media users mischaracterised the changes as though “#Duolingo has no employees, we have fired everyone and everything is being controlled by a massive AI”.

He attributes this anger to a general “#anxiety” about #technology replacing jobs. “I should have been more clear to the external world,” he reflects on a video call from his office in Pittsburgh. “Every #tech company is doing similar things [but] we were open about it.”

A CEO who expresses *surprise* at a call for “AI-first” in a consumer application is an incompetent TechWeenie.

#LuisVonAhn / #WhiteCollar / #Techweenie <https://www.ft.com/content/6fbafbb6-bafe-484c-9af9-f0ffb589b447> (paywall) / <https://archive.md/juvfL>

“Harry” says Jane, “Computers don’t eat people!”

Replace AI with DP explanation. Does the analogy still work?

#AI / #Computing / #WhiteCollar <https://youtube.com/watch?v=q-gpM-KfVng>

Was uns #Klingbeil als Investitionsbooster andrehen will, ich neoliberale Politik pur. Umverteilung von unten nach oben, Kommunen, Städte und Bürger zahlen die Zeche. Dazu Adam #Tooze. Die sog. #sPD war mal Arbeiterpartei? #CumCum - Verbrecher lässt man in Ruhe, Arme zahlen drauf... #WhiteCollar

Diese Steuersenkungen nützen d...

@decryption “Why would you outsource the most critical part of writing, your intent and your meaning, to a machine, because you think it understands you? The machine will never understand you. It's a goddamn machine, made by humans that hate what you do for a living and wish to commoditise your craft.”

Cost.

For JB, faster time for *product* to market, time is money, more profit. For the type & style of writing this works. Much like commercial art is cost sensitive, JBs commercial writing is not going to be the next PKD novel. Something to read, generate a topical idea or two, old articles becoming #kipple.

This narrative is being played out in all manners of ‘human related work’; Writing, illustration, scripting, translation, software development, administration, etc.. Why? My thesis, the ‘powers that be’¥ are finding ways to reduce the human touch to reduce cost. At the same time reducing head counts. Zero hour workers.

Read through the #Whitecollar tag to get idea of how this reduction of workers is being reported in the press.

¥ November 2022, “Major investor calls on Google owner to ‘aggressively’ cut staff and pay” #ChristopherHohn / #TCI / #Alphabet <https://ioc.exchange/@peterrenshaw/109725442924625839>.

Behind the Curtain: A #whitecollar #bloodbath

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic
#employment #unemployment #workers