Block's Layoffs and AI Rationale

This episode is sponsored by Airia. Get started today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠airia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Jason Howell and Jeff Jarvis unpack the Pentagon's fallout with Anthropic over military AI, OpenAI's rushed deal to replace them, Block cutting 40% of staff, blaming AI, Perplexity launching a multi-agent computer system, a whistleblower exposing Meta smart glasses privacy issues, and the Supreme Court rejecting AI copyright claims.

Note: Time codes subject to change depending on dynamic ad insertion by the distributor.

CHAPTERS:

• 0:00:00 - Start
• 0:01:59 - A ‘Fight About Vibes’ Drove the Pentagon’s Breakup with Anthropic
• 0:05:34 - OpenAI amends Pentagon deal as Sam Altman admits it looks ‘sloppy’
• 0:05:34 - SAMA's prevaricating, planicked posts
• 0:12:33 - Anthropic Nears $20 Billion Revenue Run Rate Amid Pentagon Feud
• 0:28:04 - Jack Dorsey’s Latest Far-Out Bet: An AI Future With Fewer Employees
• 0:28:36 - Jack Dorsey’s Block to Lay Off 40% of Its Workforce in AI Remake
• 0:30:16 - The Week the Dreaded AI Jobs Wipeout Got Real
• 0:31:20 - Tech Has Never Caused a Job Apocalypse. Don’t Bet on It Now.
• 0:37:21 - Perplexity announces “Computer,” an AI agent that assigns work to other AI agents
• 0:39:16 - Perplexity’s new Computer is another bet that users need many AI models
• 0:40:55 - Investigation: Sama data annotators in Nairobi say they often view private footage from Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, like bathroom visits; some footage is blurred
• 0:48:02 - Restaurant uses AI to make salty otter logo; gets slammed
• 0:50:15 - Burger King will use AI to check if employees say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
• 0:54:22 - The Supreme Court doesn't care if you want to copyright your AI-generated art
• 0:59:58 - Nano Banana 2: Combining Pro capabilities with lightning-fast speed
• 1:03:16 - Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Built for intelligence at scale
• 1:03:38 - GPT‑5.3 Instant: Smoother, more useful everyday conversations

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices