Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 3, and we're covering Hollywood's growing embrace of AI, Morningstar’s SpaceX valuation, and Cognition's attempt to become the operating system of AI coding agents.
Plus: the results of yesterday's poll on AI and the church, and a guest essay unpacking what economists actually proved when they claimed UBI can't stop AI layoffs.
Cognition is betting that supporting rival AI agents—not just its own Devin—will help it compete against OpenAI, Anthropic, and other model providers. The startup is transforming its Windsurf app into Devin Desktop, a platform that lets users manage and route tasks across multiple coding agents. A forthcoming router will automatically assign work based on cost and performance, helping customers control spending on premium models.
Non-developers now account for 20% of Codex users and are adopting the tool more than three times faster than developers. OpenAI is introducing six role-specific plugins for analysts, marketers, designers, investors, and bankers, alongside new annotations and website-building capabilities. The plugins bundle 62 apps and 110 skills, integrating tools such as Salesforce, Tableau, Figma, FactSet, and Snowflake. OpenAI says more than 5 million people use Codex weekly as it pushes the platform into broader enterprise workflows.
While many tech companies cite AI when cutting staff, Box says the technology is expanding its workforce. The cloud software company has created 13 new AI-related roles—including AI architects, evaluators, and automation engineers—and expects headcount to exceed 3,000 by early 2027, up from 2,900 at the start of 2026. CEO Aaron Levie says AI-driven productivity and demand for AI-powered products are both fueling hiring.
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VIDEO
AI Job Apocalypse Put on Hold
AI job apocalypse fears fade as AI leaders walk back layoff predictions, arguing adoption is slower, jobs remain strong, and AI boosts productivity.
FORWARD FUTURE ORIGINAL
Economists Just “Proved” UBI Can’t Stop AI Layoffs — Here’s What They Actually Proved
There's a new paper making the rounds called "The AI Layoff Trap", by Brett Hemenway Falk and Gerry Tsoukalas, and it arrives with a headline that's catnip for anyone looking to wave off basic income. Among the policies that can't fix the problem of AI-driven layoffs, they list universal basic income. Right there in the abstract, sitting next to capital income taxes and upskilling and worker equity. Only one tool makes the cut: a Pigouvian tax on automation. → Read the full article here.
MARKET PULSE
Morningstar Values SpaceX at $780 Billion, Well Below IPO Target
Morningstar has initiated coverage of SpaceX with a $780 billion valuation, roughly 48% below the company’s recent private-market valuation of about $1.5 trillion and far short of its reported IPO target of at least $1.8 trillion. The firm estimates SpaceX’s launch and Starlink businesses are worth approximately $611 billion and assigns an additional $170 billion to its AI operations through a probability-weighted analysis.
Analyst Nicolas Owens argued that the company has been “significantly overvalued,” citing uncertainty around assets such as Grok, the Colossus data center, and unproven orbital data center concepts. While Morningstar expects stronger selling pressure after IPO lockups expire, it noted that limited share supply, support from major underwriters, and potential inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 could help support the stock in its early trading period. → Continue reading here.
HOLLYWOOD
Martin Scorsese Backs AI Startup Black Forest Labs
Martin Scorsese has joined image and video generation startup Black Forest Labs as a partner and adviser, marking one of the clearest signs yet that Hollywood’s resistance to generative AI is easing. The 83-year-old filmmaker said he recently used the company’s technology during preproduction to create and share storyboards more efficiently, describing the experience as “creatively freeing.”
Black Forest Labs, founded in 2024 by former Stability AI researcher Robin Rombach, develops open AI models under the FLUX brand for image generation and video editing. Scorsese emphasized AI’s value as a visualization tool rather than a replacement for creative work, but his endorsement comes as more entertainment figures and studios publicly embrace AI despite ongoing concerns from filmmakers, writers, and artists about its impact on jobs and creativity. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)
NEWS
What Else is Happening
SpaceX Eyes $1.75T IPO: Elon Musk's company seeks at least $75B in a record listing, with Starlink profits offsetting losses elsewhere.
Cisco Launches AI Defense Platform: New tools let businesses deploy AI agents to monitor systems, block threats, and counter cyberattacks.
Uber Rations AI: Uber capped employees at $1,500/month per agentic coding tool (Claude Code, Cursor) after burning its annual AI budget in 4 months.
Impulse Raises $500M for Hiring: The space startup plans to add up to 200 employees, betting engineering talent remains critical despite AI advances.
Trump Narrows AI Review Order: AI firms can voluntarily submit new models for government testing 30 days before release after industry pushback.
REAL OR AI
Can You Still Tell if an Image Is AI?
Real or AI? |
POLL RESULTS
Does the Church Have a Legitimate Role in Shaping How AI Develops?
Here’s how you voted:
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes, as a vital moral compass. (43%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yes, but only as an advisory voice. (23%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No, AI governance must remain strictly secular. (17%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No, they are too disconnected from the technology. (14%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No opinion, next question. (2%)
