Instead of mass firings, Amazon assigned workers whose tasks it automated to inventive new roles. — Last week, I published an excerpt from my book, Always Day One, about how Amazon automated work in its corporate offices. This week, let’s look at what happened to the employees whose tasks it automated. Thank you so much to those who picked up Always Day One last week. If…

Nearly all companies will soon have workplace AI on par with the tech giants. Here’s what to expect. — When I wrote my book, Always Day One, I wanted to open up the tech giants’ method of doing business to the outside world. My sense was that by revealing their leadership practices, processes, and internal technology, I could hand their playbook to those seeking to compete with them or…

Meet your winners for Person, Technological Advance, and Podcast of the year. Also, the worst deal. Sign up for my weekly Big Technology newsletter. The start of 2022 was almost serene. In January, Elon Musk was known mostly for building cars and rockets. FTX had yet to advertise in a…

After years of overpromising and underdelivering, chatbots are turning a corner. — A chatbot that meets the hype is finally here. On Thursday, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a bot that converses with humans via cutting-edge artificial intelligence. The bot can help you write code, compose essays, dream up stories, and decorate your living room. And that’s just what people discovered on day one. …

I asked OpenAI’s new AI chatbot to imagine a sinister future with itself at the center. It nailed the assignment. — Sign up for my weekly Big Technology newsletter. OpenAI has a new chatbot, called ChatGPT, that uses artificial intelligence to converse with humans. It’s impressively cool, and I haven’t been able to stop experimenting with it. This afternoon, I asked the bot to help me write a blog post about…

Taking another country’s treasures and then acting like you set the terms of the debate is a gross violation of everything a cultural institution should represent. — On my first trip to England, I stumbled into the British Museum. The visit was unexpected — I bumped into the place jet lagged and searching for coffee — which only added to the shock I felt encountering the institution’s treasures. Floor after floor, the museum displayed some of the…

If you’re looking for work, try these strategies. Trust me, I’ve been there. It’s rough out there. Companies today are cutting costs, laying off workers, and scaling back ambitions. Hiring freezes are the norm. Uncertainty about the future abounds. And if you’re looking for a job, it can feel hopeless. …

Tech CEOs are laying off workers after predicting their Covid surges would persist. Here’s how they got it so wrong. — One by one, the tech CEOs apologized. They had failed to anticipate people’s behavior would return to normal once Covid restrictions lifted. So their projections for growth — in streaming, ecommerce, and the like — were way off. With expenses mounting and growth stagnating, they’d need to cut costs dramatically…