IBM CEO among the first major executives to say they'll replace jobs with AI

• Nathan Bomey, author of Axios Closer

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

IBM's CEO is setting his sights on using artificial intelligence to eliminate thousands of jobs in one of the first acknowledgments by a major company that it plans to reduce its workforce with AI.

Why it matters: AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape the workforce, much like the industrial revolution and the digital age caused enormous opportunity, upheaval and uncertainty throughout the economy.

Threat level: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg that the company plans to pause hiring on back-office functions, where the company has about 26,000 workers.

• “I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," he said.
• That amounts to some 7,800 positions, part of which would involve not replacing jobs after workers leave, the company told Bloomberg.

Be smart: What was unusual about Krishna's comments is that he openly admitted that he'll use AI to slash IBM's workforce.

• To this point, corporate executives have largely been more circumspect about their plans — insisting that AI will simply supplement their workforce or enhance their employees' ability to do their jobs.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "godfather of AI," told the New York Times that he left Google so that he could raise red flags about AI.

• Among them: that it will wipe out jobs like paralegals, personal assistants and translators.
• “It takes away the drudge work,” Hinton told the Times. “It might take away more than that.”

The intrigue: American workers believe that AI will disrupt jobs in general — but they tend to think it won't affect their job.

• 62% "think the use of AI in the workplace will have a major impact on workers generally over the next 20 years," the Pew Research Center reported in a survey published in April.
• But only 28% "believe the use of AI will have a major impact on them personally" — with a full half of Americans saying it won't have any impact on their jobs at all or that it'll be minor.

The bottom line: The AI revolution will lend new urgency to the "anything you can do I can do better" mindset — because if you can't do it better than AI, you'll be at risk of being replaced.

Go deeper:

• Corporate gameplan for AI coming into focus
• PwC US plans $1 billion AI investment

Samsung bans employees from using AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard after an accidental data leak, report says

Sawdah Bhaimiya
May 2, 2023, 

Samsung has banned the use of AI tools in the workplace.

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images


Samsung has banned employees from using ChatGPT in the workplace, per Bloomberg.
This comes after Samsung engineers accidentally leaked internal source code to ChatGPT in April.
Other companies including Amazon, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs have restricted AI use.

Samsung has introduced a new policy banning employees from using generative AI tools like Open AI's ChatGPT and Google Bard in the workplace, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

In an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg, the company expressed concerns about data being shared on AI platforms and ending up in the hands of other users.

The new policy comes after Samsung engineers accidentally leaked internal source code by uploading it into ChatGPT in April, the memo said.

Staff are now banned from using generative AI tools on company-owned devices including computers, tablets, phones, and internal networks, per Bloomberg.

"We ask that you diligently adhere to our security guidelines and failure to do so may result in a breach or compromise of company information resulting in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment," Samsung wrote in the memo.

It added that the company is reviewing its security measures to "create a secure environment" for employees to use AI but at present it's "temporarily restricting the use of generative AI."

Samsung, OpenAI, and Google did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the ban.

Wall Street Banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan were among the first companies to restrict employee use of ChatGPT over concerns about third-party software accessing sensitive information.

These banks also feared that the chatbot could share financial information that could lead to regulatory action.

Tech giant Amazon similarly warned staff against using ChatGPT because of instances of the chatbot's responses resembling internal Amazon data, Insider's Eugene Kim reported in January.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, introduced new measures in April to address concerns about managing data on the chatbot. This included giving users the ability to disable chat history.

"When chat history is disabled, we will retain new conversations for 30 days and review them only when needed to monitor for abuse, before permanently deleting," the company said.

OpenAI is also working on a ChatGPT Business subscription for professionals and businesses who want greater control over how their data is used and stored.

Google said it helps Bard improve by selecting a "subset of conversations and use automated tools to help remove personally identifiable information," according to its website.

"These sample conversations are reviewable by trained reviewers and kept for up to 3 years, separately from your Google Account."

Google clashes with Brazil over disinformation bill


By AFP
Published May 2, 2023

Brazil Justice Minister Flavio Dino accused Google of "manipulating" search results 

- Copyright AFP Gueipeur Denis SASSOU

The Brazilian government accused Google Tuesday of “deceitful and abusive propaganda” against a bill to tackle disinformation online, ordering the US tech giant to stay out of the debate or label its positions as advertising.

The row came as lawmakers in Brazil’s lower house prepared to vote on the so-called “fake news bill” — dubbed the “censorship bill” by critics — which aims to make tech companies regulate disinformation, hate speech and violent content on their platforms.

Brazil’s National Consumer Protection Bureau ordered Google, which has criticized the bill, to label as “advertising” messages on its site warning the legislation could “make your internet worse” and “increase confusion about what is true or false in Brazil.”

The bureau gave the company two hours to balance that with “counter-propaganda” or face a fine of one million reais ($200,000) an hour.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino accused Google of “manipulating” search results to display content opposed to the bill more prominently — a charge the company denied.

“No one should be manipulating Brazilians’ freedom of expression,” Dino told a news conference, accusing Google of abusing its platform to promote its own position.

Addressing the same conference, consumer protection secretary Wadih Damous announced a series of measures against what he called Google’s “deceitful and abusive propaganda.”

Google’s Brazilian home page had prominently displayed a message against the bill, linking to a blog post by the company’s public policy director, Marcelo Lacerda.

Lacerda warned of “undesirable consequences” of the bill, including inadvertently protecting those who spread disinformation, by preventing companies from implementing their own terms of use.

The link to the blog was removed from Google’s Brazilian home page Tuesday. A Google spokeswoman told AFP it had been scheduled to expire anyway, saying the decision was not related to the government’s measures.

The bill, which has already passed the Senate, was introduced three years ago — one in a series of efforts worldwide to grapple with the flood of misinformation online.

It shot to prominence more recently, after supporters of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the halls of power in Brasilia on January 8, allegedly egged on by social media disinformation claiming their candidate’s 2022 election loss to leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was fraudulent.

Bolsonaro attacked the bill Monday in an interview with conservative news site Revista Oeste, calling it “the beginning of the end of our freedom.”

Palestinian Resistance Responds to Massive Israeli Airstrikes on Besieged Gaza

M.S | DOP - 3 May, 2023

The Palestinian resistance started responding to Israeli occupation military aggression on the besieged Gaza City today, Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Local Palestinian sources reported that the Palestinian resistance in Gaza launched many projectiles toward the Israeli military sites on the occupied Palestinian territories.

This came in response to the Israeli occupation warplanes’ bombing of many sites across the city and the Israeli murder of the Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan.

Today’s morning, Adnan died inside Israeli prisons after 86 consecutive days of hunger strikes against the illegal administrative detention order the Israeli court issued against him.

Adnan was also subjected to medical negligence by the Israeli prison administration that led his health to deteriorate.

The Israeli prison administration also practices medical negligence against Palestinian sick detainees by procrastinating in providing them with the required medical treatment and even ignoring their medical needs, which worsens their health.

Israel bombs Gaza after Khader Adnan's death

Israeli warplanes target besieged Palestinian enclave following death of 45-year-old prisoner in Israeli custody.


REUTERS
An explosion is seen as Israel strikes blockaded Gaza. / Photo: Reuters

Israeli warplanes have carried out air strikes targeting areas in besieged Gaza, Israeli army and witnesses in Gaza said.

The strikes late on Tuesday come after rocket barrages were launched following the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody earlier on Tuesday.

Khader Adnan, who was affiliated with Palestine's Islamic Jihad group, died in an Israeli prison after an 87-day hunger strike.

Hamas, which governs Gaza, said Israeli planes hit two locations in the main part of Gaza city.

Israel used fighter jets and drones to bomb multiple sites in northern Gaza, said TRT World's Nizar Sadawi reporting from Gaza. He said Palestinian groups also fired a fresh barrage of rockets in response to Israeli attacks.

Israeli jets strike besieged Gaza following death of Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli jail. TRT World's Nizar Sadawi has more

For more: https://t.co/kr46aDNpEX pic.twitter.com/OYKwThW8Iu— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) May 2, 2023



The Israeli fighter jets shelled, with several missiles, sites of armed factions in Gaza City and central areas of the strip, according to witnesses and an Anadolu Agency correspondent.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has not provided any information on whether there are any casualties.

Dozens of rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians, leaving them running to bomb shelters, the Israeli army said, adding, "This has been the reality for many in Israel today."

Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza exchanged fire shortly after the death of Adnan.

'Deliberate assassination'

The Israel Prison Service [IPS] said Adnan was found unconscious and was taken to the hospital but attempts to resuscitate him failed.

His death has triggered a storm of condemnations, with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh calling it a "deliberate assassination."

The 44-year-old, from the town of Arraba, west of Jenin, started his hunger strike on February 5 to protest his detention by Israeli authorities.

Adnan was repeatedly detained by Israeli forces and had staged multiple hunger strikes to protest his detention.

In 2012, Adnan staged a 66-day hunger strike in protest of his detention, forcing Israeli authorities to release him.

He staged similar hunger strikes in 2015 and 2018.

Activist hopes her fame draws attention to Mexico’s missing

Online News EditorApril 27, 2023

 

By Ruth E. Hernandez Beltran

New York, Apr 27 (EFE).- A Mexican woman named by TIME magazine as one of The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 is hopeful that the recognition will raise awareness about the plight of tens of thousands of people who have gone missing in Mexico.

“The first thing that passed through my mind was the possibility to make heard this cry of grief that we are living in Mexico, so cruel that we can call it a crime against humanity,” Maria Herrera Magdaleno told EFE in New York, where she traveled for this week’s Time 100 Summit and Gala.

“That they take your children this way, should not be,” said the 73-year-old mother of eight who has seen four sons “disappeared,” apparently at the hands of organized crime.

In the course of searching for her sons, Doña Maria, as she is known, came into contact with other families and emerged as a leader of the movement demanding action from authorities.

Exasperated by the lack of official support, some of those families have taken it upon themselves to excavate clandestine graves.

On Aug. 28, 2008, Herrero’s sons Jesus and Raul Trujillo left the family’s hometown in the western state of Michoacan with five work colleagues on a business trip to the southern state of Guerrero.

The seven men, ranging in age from 19 to 27, were last seen on the night of Aug. 28 at a bar in Guerrero.

Two years later, Luis Armando and Gustavo Trujillo – against their mother’s wishes – set out for the Gulf coast state of Veracruz to conclude a piece of business to help the family defray the expenses of the search for their brothers.

Luis Armando and Gustavo never reached their destination.

“My first intention was to let myself die, I did not resign myself to living without my four sons. I believe that the strength came from above, from the infinite, from my God, and I decided to go out and keep looking,” Herrera recounted with tears in her eyes.

She joined with other parents to create a network of families of the missing that now includes nearly 200 groups in 26 of Mexico’s 32 states.

The activists want to change society “because what hurts the most is to have to leave this so inhuman, so cruel Mexico to our loved ones that live inside us, to future generations,” Herrera said.

The families are doing the work “that the state should be doing because it is the government that is propitiating that our loved ones are disappeared,” she said.

Herrera blames attempts in 2013 and 2018 to her sons Miguel Angel and Juan Carlos, respectively, on corrupt police who were trying to intimidate her.

“The threats continue. With that they wish to say ‘pipe down already, shut up already,’ but they are not going to accomplish it because every time this happens to me, I shout louder,” she told EFE.

“They are still doing it, and not only with my sons. That’s why I see it’s not organized crime, it’s institutionalized crime and the fact that they have Genaro Garcia Luna here, gives me strength to keep saying that it is the same corrupt state that has us in this situation,” Herrera said.

Garcia Luna, who was Mexico’s public safety secretary from 2006-2012, is awaiting sentencing in the United States after being convicted by a federal court of taking bribes from Mexican drug cartels.

EFE rh/dr

Brazil continues undoing Bolsonaro’s anti-indigenous policies

Online News EditorApril 28, 2023

 

Brasilia, Apr 28 (EFE).- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took another step Friday to dismantle the anti-indigenous policies of rightist predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, resuming the recognition of territorial claims after a four-year-long hiatus.

“We are going to legalize the indigenous lands,” Lula said during a visit to the encampment set up this week in Brasilia by some 6,000 indigenous people who came to the capital to denounce the invasion of their reserves by illegal miners and loggers, with disastrous effects on the environment and their lives.

“To achieve zero deforestation in Amazonia by 2030, we are going to need you as guardians of the forests,” the president told the group before signing a decree establishing the boundaries of six new indigenous reserves in the states of Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Ceara, Goias, and Rio Grande do Sul, bringing the total to nearly 600.

The largest of the new territories is the Kariri-Xoco reserve in the northeastern state of Alagoas, with 2,300 inhabitants, while the smallest has only nine permanent residents.

The new reserves amount to roughly 560,000 hectares (2,162 sq mi). All told, the indigenous reserves cover 14 percent of Brazil’s land area.

“Before the arrival of the Portuguese, the indigenous occupied 100 percent of the territory,” Lula noted.

Roughly 90 percent of the indigenous territories, with a population of around 500,000, are designated by law as environmentally protected areas, yet the Bolsonaro administration allowed miners, loggers, and ranchers to operate in those areas with impunity.

Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s first minister of Indigenous Peoples, said that Bolsonaro instituted a “policy totally engaged in the negation of the rights of the indigenous peoples.”

She said that illegal mining in Amazonia has polluted rivers and jeopardized the food supply of the indigenous inhabitants, as exemplified by the “tragedy” of the Yanomami people of Brazil’s far north.

In January, in the weeks following Lula’s inauguration, stories emerged from the Yanomami reserve – a territory twice the size of Switzerland – about hundreds of people suffering from severe malnutrition.

Also speaking during the event at the encampment was Raoni, a 93-year-old Kayapo chieftain with decades spent advocating for the defense of Amazonia.

Noting that some 800 additional indigenous territories are awaiting recognition, he asked Lula to oppose an attempt by the Brazilian right to limit recognition to territories that were occupied by the original peoples when the current constitution took effect in 1988,

“We existed hundreds of years before the constitution,” Raoni said. EFE ed/dr

Tunisia’s powerful UGTT urges release of jailed union officials

Online News EditorMay 1, 2023

 

Tunis, May 1 (EFE).- Tunisia’s influential General Labour Union (UGTT) demanded on Labor Day on Monday the release of senior union officials arrested in recent months.

The union said that the growing government crackdown would not stop them from defending workers’ rights.

“We will not keep quiet in the face of threats and catastrophes awaiting the country,” UGTT head Noureddine Taboubi during a Labor Day speech.

Taboubi accused the Tunisian authorities of “tarnishing the country’s image” after preventing a delegation from the International Trade Union Confederation from entering the country in March and expelling its general secretary, Esther Lynch, after taking part in a union demonstration.

The UGTT, which claims to have a million members and played a key role in the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, backed president Kais Saied’s parliament suspension in 2021.

However, the union has distanced itself from Saied’s policies after he approved a new constitution after a referendum in July despite a 70% abstention. EFE

nrm/smq/ch

Latinos stage May Day march in New York City

Online News EditorMay 1, 2023

 

New York, May 1 (EFE).- Hundreds of workers, a large number of them Latino immigrants, on Monday commemorated International Workers Day in New York City with a march through the streets of Lower Manhattan during which they demanded better working conditions and pay, giving undocumented migrants the right to work, the legalization of sexual work and for greater respect for their labor.

Slogans such as “Workers united will never be defeated” and “Yes, you can” – first articulated by agricultural workers’ rights activist Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) – were loudly chanted as the marchers and members of nine organizations from different sectors, including immigrants’ and prisoners’ defense organizations, unions and legal services, moved through the Big Apple,

Street vendors, domestic workers, restaurant and cleaning workers, porters, construction workers in their hardhats, members of the LGBT community and transgender sex workers, among many others, gathered Monday morning on Washington Square, near New York University, where amid a festive atmosphere with Latino music and assorted signs they made their demands and concerns known.

One of those demands is for the City Council to approve a bill that would prevent unjustified firings and would obligate bosses to provide an explanation for terminating an employee.

In addition, the demonstrators want the state government to give the green light to a program to create the “Unemployment Bridge Program” so that workers without work permits, domestic workers and independent workers can receive an income if they lose their jobs, a situation that affected many thousands of people during the coronavirus pandemic.

This, in particular, was the main concern of Carmen Canela, who works in the restaurant sector, a single mother with three kids. “I don’t have unemployment insurance and I’m not the only one. We (came here) seeking a better future and we’re finding an uncertain future,” she said amid the cheers of other workers carrying signs – some of them in Spanish – saying things like “The workers’ struggle has no borders,” “Support immigrant workers,” “Excluded no more” and “Without essential workers, the US is nothing.”

The construction workers made their voices heard over the issue of workplace safety and demanded minimum pay of $40 per hour in the kind of job that has cost many workers – many of them Latinos – their lives.

This year, among the demonstrators were transgender sex workers who are seeking legalization for their activity.

Sex worker Nathan Brown said the marchers wanted to make clear that “sex work is work” and that sex workers are demanding rights and protections, adding that she has been discriminated against for being a transgender woman, a situation that others have also experienced and are thus unable to find employment.

She said she’d been to different places to ask for work but the bosses look her up and down and tell her they’ll call her but never do. Because of that, she added, many transgender women stop working in the sex industry so that they can get other employment to be able to send money to their families, pay their debts and “put food on the table.”

She said that “it’s time” for the state legislature to decriminalize “the buying and selling of sex among adults.”

The workers set out from Washington Square to the sound of drums and other instruments, surprising many passersby, many of whom took photos or videotaped the colorful and peaceful protest.

EFE –/bp