Economists are urging policymakers to understand and respond to AI job disruptions.

The full text of this letter is here:

AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years.

This could drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame. It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.

Economists, policymakers and technology leaders must act now to understand the economics of transformative AI and to build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society.

Boy, that's a touch academic.

This letter got a lot of press and frankly I'm not sure why. There's a bit of alarm ringing and that's great if job displacement actually happens because you can say "I told you so." If it doesn't rest assured we'll forget these three paragraphs.

A few thoughts:

1. The key words here are "could" and "may."
2. We don't know how this turns out or whether AI can live up to its hype.
3. AI has been blamed for layoffs, but honestly most of the cuts were due to overhiring during Covid.
4. Timing is everything. We don't know if we're talking job displacement in 4 months, 4 years or 40 years.

Bottom line: AI job displacement should be studied, but the jury is out on what needs to happen. Can you really "build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions" based on what you hope AI will do?

Meta is expanding its Richland Parish, Louisiana data center to 5GW. The expansion will run the tab to $50 billion or so. Meta broke ground on the data center in December 2024. Meta has a deal with Entergy to fund seven new natural-gas fueled generating plants, three grid-scale batteries, nuclear uprates and other purchased power.

That's the news, but it was a bit hard to find since Meta went way fluffy in its press release. It was so sappy I threw up in my mouth a bit.

In a move that highlights how unpopular AI infrastructure has become politically, Meta completely overdid it. Some choice quotes:

• "It’s life-altering for our teachers and their families, and it’s transforming our schools. Meta’s investment has made Richland Parish a destination for education as well as industry."
• "Meta gave us the courage to grow here."
• Meta said: "From the beginning, this project has always been about more than building infrastructure — it’s about building alongside the community."

Now the annual bonus paid out to teachers of $50,000 is legit, but the PR was so flowery my innate Spidey senses perked up (some would say that's just cynicism but it's a part of my job). Maybe Meta is the second coming to Northeast Louisiana, but time will tell. Let's fire up those natural gas generating plants first.

Anthropic said it will extend Claude Fable 5 access on all paid plans and keep Claude Code's weekly rate limits 50% higher through July 19. I'm sure this move has nothing to do with OpenAI's ChatGPT Work release and SpaceXAI's Grok 4.5's launch. The amateurish promo approach from Anthropic is confusing.

• Rightsizing open models may cut your AI inference spend

Apple is suing OpenAI over IP theft and trade secrets and its lawsuit revolves mostly around former employee Tang Tan, who worked on the iPhone. This case is going to be covered extensively and Sam Altman and Elon Musk are exchanging jabs. The big takeaway is that OpenAI's hardware ambitions can be delayed no matter how the case turns out. Discovery should be interesting. Keep in mind that this court battle will take time to play out. Settlement? Unlikely. Will this be entertaining? Definitely. We'll see how this plays out, but for now it's just a lot of noise.

Pangram posted data on how much AI is being used on social media. Chances are that any long-form post on LinkedIn had at least some AI help.

This quote gave me a chuckle (emphasis mine).

"LinkedIn also encourages AI use on its platform in several ways, including a built-in "Write with AI" button (now rebranded "Enhance post," but still offering AI writing assistance). People are noticing LinkedIn's growing reputation for slop – perhaps to combat it, an executive at LinkedIn recently announced that the platform would be detecting and downranking AI-generated posts using an in-house algorithm; ironically, the announcement was itself AI-generated. Whether or not the company is attempting to modulate AI in their feed, our users are still seeing a lot of AI writing on LinkedIn."

SK hynix, a memory giant, listed its American Depository Receipts on the Nasdaq and raised $26.5 billion. In a statement, SK Hynix said:

"With this listing, SK hynix plans to broaden its global investor base in the U.S. capital markets and further solidify its position as a "Core AI Partner.""

SK hynix ADRs were priced at $149 each and closed at $168.57.

Fidji Simo, OpenAI's application chief, said in a post on X she's stepping down to become a part-time advisor. She said:

"Three months ago, I had to go on medical leave after a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness I’ve lived with for seven years. During that time, it became clear that the road to recovery would be much longer and more complex than I had anticipated—and that I needed to focus on it fully.

When I went on leave, many people told me I was courageous for prioritizing my health. The truth is that I am only making this decision now because I failed to make it many times before.

Over the years, doctors, friends, colleagues, and loved ones encouraged me to slow down. Two years after I got sick, Facebook offered me the opportunity to take a full year of medical leave. I didn’t even pause to consider it. I immediately said no. At the time, Zuck told me I should play the long game. I wish I had listened."

OpenAI's CEO of Applications pens intro missive: 5 takeaways

Unit4 said it will enable new and existing cloud ERP customers to trial its AI tools for free if registered before December. Under the program, Unit4 will give customers access to its Advanced Virtual Agent (AVA), which works across Unit4's ERPx platform, through August 31, 2027.

According to Unit4, customers in the program will have a usage cap high enough for everyday use without exceeding limits and no commitments or surprise costs. When the trial ends, customers can decide whether to proceed with a subscription. Unit4 said its AI tools ae model agnostic and provide governance and context built in.

For midmarket companies, these programs are handy since a big part of their strategy will have to revolve around AI agents built into existing applications as well as bespoke apps and use cases.

Shipments of desktop, notebooks and workstations in the second quarter took a hit due to supply constraints and price increases, according to Omdia.

According to Omdia, notebook shipments fell 4.2% in the second quarter compared to a year ago and desktops fell 1.3%. Although Apple got the press for its MacBook price increases, all of the PC makers have been raising prices.

IBM has updated its IBM Bob agentic software platform with multi-agent tools, AI cost and use analytics (Bobalytics) and pre-built enterprise workflows for IBM Z, IBM i and Plus Java Modernization. Here's more on Bob 2.0.

OpenAI outlined GPT-Live, a model that can listen and speak at the same time. The model can even use fillers to keep a conversation going. The evaluations include "pleasantness and flow of conversation."

Samsung Electronics said it will host its Galaxy Unpacked event July 22 in London to announced what is expected to be new foldable devices. Meanwhile, Google has sent out updates for its Pixel 11 launch Aug. 12 in New York. Aside from new features all eyes will be on the price tag due to higher memory prices.