Good morning. It's Tuesday, May 26, and we're covering why Goldman's CEO says AI job fears are overblown, soaring AI coding costs forcing tighter controls, and the cybersecurity hiring boom AI just kicked off. Today's reader poll ties into story one. ↓
Cybersecurity recruiting is accelerating even as much of tech braces for AI-driven job disruption. Executive search firms say companies are urgently seeking leaders who can handle breaches, audit AI-generated code, and secure infrastructure. Glassdoor said cybersecurity job postings rose 11% year over year in the first quarter. Concerns intensified after models like Anthropic’s Mythos raised fears about AI-assisted vulnerability discovery and hacking.
Elon Musk said xAI finished training Grok V9-Medium, a 1.5 trillion-parameter model designed to improve difficult coding performance. Musk said the model includes supplementary training data from Cursor and will begin reinforcement learning within days. Public release is expected in two to three weeks. Grok V9 replaces the smaller 0.5T V8-Small model that currently powers all Grok production traffic.
Pope Leo XIV’s first major manifesto warns that unchecked AI development risks undermining human dignity, labor, and moral responsibility. The 42,000-word encyclical calls for new legal and ethical frameworks governing automation, warfare, and algorithmic decision-making. Pope Leo also urged transparency in AI systems, worker retraining protections, and limits on autonomous military force.
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FORWARD FUTURE ORIGINAL
Anthropic Is Not on Your Side
The easiest mistake to make about Anthropic is to treat it as “OpenAI, but with a conscience.”
That story is emotionally satisfying but overly simplistic. OpenAI was the first-mover, ostensibly motivated by “AGI for the benefit of all humanity” which, at the time of writing, is still in their charter. On the surface, this sounds very similar to Anthropic’s morality. → Read the full article here.
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The Unreasonable Effectiveness of HTML
AI ANXIETY
Goldman CEO Says AI Job Fears Ignore U.S. Economy’s Adaptability
In a New York Times opinion essay, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon argued that fears of an AI-driven “job apocalypse” are overstated, even as automation reshapes white-collar work. Solomon cited Goldman Sachs estimates that AI could automate 25% of current work hours over the next decade, while noting that sectors tied to AI infrastructure — including data centers — have already created more than 200,000 construction jobs since 2022.
He acknowledged early signs of disruption, including a Stanford study showing entry-level employment in highly automatable fields has declined 16% relative to less-exposed jobs. Still, Solomon argued that historical technological shifts — from electrification to the internet — ultimately expanded productivity, created new industries, and increased overall employment, though he warned that governments and companies will need to invest heavily in worker retraining. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)
POLL
AI Job Fears: Overblown or Underestimated?
Goldman's CEO says AI won't cause mass unemployment. History proves technology always creates more jobs than it destroys.
Do you buy it? |
Sharing what everyone said tomorrow.
SPENDING
Microsoft Scales Back Claude Code as AI Usage Costs Surge
Microsoft is reportedly winding down most direct licenses for Anthropic’s Claude Code inside its Experiences and Devices division, with affected employees asked to migrate to GitHub Copilot CLI by June 30, 2026. The move follows growing concerns across the tech industry that AI coding tools, while highly productive, are generating unsustainable token and compute costs at enterprise scale.
The article points to Uber, where CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said AI coding adoption among engineers jumped from 32% to 84%, with some developers generating monthly token bills between $500 and $2,000. As AI agents handle more autonomous and reasoning-heavy workloads, companies are increasingly discovering that pricing models built around lightweight assistance break down under continuous enterprise usage. → Read the full article here.
MOBILITY
Hypershell’s $2,000 AI Exoskeleton Adds Motorized Power to Hiking
Hypershell’s new X Ultra S exoskeleton uses dual hip-mounted motors and AI-powered movement tracking to assist walking, hiking, and cycling by adding force to each step. The wearable system, priced around $2,000, combines carbon-fiber leg braces with software called “HyperIntuition,” which adjusts motor output in real time based on stride and cadence.
The assist is most noticeable on uphill climbs and soft terrain like sand, where the device can reduce physical strain and offset fatigue. But the system still requires manual tuning through a mobile app, struggles with downhill detection, and can feel intrusive during sudden movements or uneven terrain. → Read the full article here.
NEWS
What Else is Happening
Google Launches APAC Climate AI Accelerator: DeepMind will back startups using AI for climate with mentorship and a Singapore bootcamp.
Study Tracks Who Gets New Tech Jobs: MIT researchers found postwar tech jobs mostly benefited young college graduates in cities.
Uber Questions AI Spending Surge: Uber’s COO said rising AI token costs aren’t clearly improving products, as the company slows hiring.
Samsung Chip Staff Eye Massive Bonuses: Samsung chip workers could average $340,000 bonuses after a union deal tied payouts to AI chip profits.
