Block's 40% Layoff: Bloat vs. AI

Darrin Peller and Marcelo Lima talk with TITV Host Akash Pasricha about Block’s 40% layoffs and how much of the cuts were driven by AI versus old-fashioned bloat. We also talk with reporter Aaron Holmes and Anissa Gardizy about OpenAI’s $110 billion funding round, Amazon’s $50 billion commitment, and the emerging chip and cloud alliances among Microsoft, Google and Meta, and Editors Martin Peers and Nick Wingfield about Netflix walking away from the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war and Anthropic’s standoff with the Pentagon over military use of AI. Lastly, we get into AI answer-engine optimization, the rise of “marketing engineers” with Profound CEO James Cadwallader and the OpenClaw Foundation’s future with foundation board member Dave Morin.

Articles discussed on this episode: 

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openais-new-deals-mean-amazon-microsoft-nvidia

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/military-worries-simmer-openai-google-anthropic-hits-stalemate-pentagon

https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/the-briefing/jack-dorsey-proves-ai-job-cut-fears-true-ellisons-win-warner

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