“Over the past three-and-a-half decades, #India's #SoftwareIndustry has created millions of #WhiteCollar jobs, spawning a new #MiddleClass driven by high ambition and strong purchasing power. This, in turn, has fuelled demand for apartments, cars and restaurants across top-tier cities such as #Bengaluru, #Hyderabad and #Gurugram over the past 30 years.

The #NiftyITIndex of 10 of the country's biggest software companies is down some 20% this year, wiping out tens of billions of dollars in investor money.
The #SellOff began early in February after #Anthropic's #Claude agent released a new tool that it claimed could automate key legal, compliance and data processes, hitting at the heart of the #LabourHeavy industry's #BusinessModel.”

#AI / #ArtificialIntelligence / #software / #engineering <https://bbc.com/news/articles/c5yrq1090p8o>

“Sources familiar with the matter say the company (#META) could lay off as much as 20 percent of its staff, eliminating roughly 15,800 positions. That would be the largest series of #layoffs at the company since it #terminated 22,000 workers over just a few months between November 2022 and early 2023.

Word of the potential #downsizing comes after Meta signaled that it was all but giving up on #VR and the #Metaverse, slashing budgets and closing studios. Instead, the company has been spending big to attract #AITalent, build #DataCenters, and acquire companies like #Moltbook.”

I note the “silver bullet” approach by a company who was founded on PHP widgets and #SocialMedia.

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <http://theverge.com/business/895026/meta-laying-off-20-percent> / <https://archive.md/MlrOR>

Bindu Reddy (@bindureddy)

로보틱스의 긴급성이 커지고 있으며 작성자는 화이트칼라 업무가 문자 그대로 12개월 내에 완전 자동화될 수 있다고 주장. 다음 전선은 블루칼라 작업이며, 극히 뛰어난 블루칼라 노동자는 미래의 'NBA 선수'와 같을 것이라는 비유를 통해 블루칼라 자동화의 중요성을 강조.

https://x.com/bindureddy/status/2032825473202532674

#robotics #automation #bluecollar #whitecollar #futureofwork

“Software giant #Atlassian has announced it is #LayingOff about 10% of its #workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, and replacing its chief technology officer as it restructures to invest further in #ArtificialIntelligence.

More than 900 affected positions were involved in #SoftwareResearch and development, a spokesperson said. Most of Atlassian’s #employees work in #SoftwareEngineering and #design, accounting for over 50% of its 13,813 full-time workforce in June 2025.

About 640 affected employees are in #NorthAmerica, 480 in #Australia and 250 in #india with the remainder spread across #Japan, the #Philippines, #Europe, the #MiddleEast and #Africa, according to the spokesperson.”

A reminder this company was created in #java by a bunch of “Blub programmers” 🤪😣🤣

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #Entrepreneurs / #Straya / #AI / #SaaS / #software <https://theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/12/atlassian-layoffs-software-technology-ai-push-mike-cannon-brookes-asx>

“few other human activities offer such unambiguous feedback. There are no objective tests for whether financial analysis or advertising copy is “good.” Undeterred, AI companies set out to make such tests, collectively paying billions of dollars to professionals of all types to write exacting and comprehensive criteria for a job well done.”

“… of the more than 30 workers I spoke with occupied a position along a vast and growing data-supply chain. There are people crafting #checklists that define a good #ChatbotResponse, typically called “#rubrics,” and other people grading those rubrics. Others #grade chatbot answers according to those rubrics, and still others take the rubrics and write out what’s often described as a “#GoldenOutput,” or the ideal chatbot answer.”

“Others are asked to explain every step they took to arrive at this golden output in the voice of a #chatbot thinking to itself, producing what’s called a “#ReasoningTrace” for #AI to follow later when it encounters a similar task out in the real world. Sometimes the labs want only rubrics for prompts their AI can’t already do, which means companies like #Mercor ask workers to produce “#stumpers,” or requests that will make the #AIModel fail.”

It’s not that AI will totally replace the expertise of #WhiteCollar PhD, Legal and other specialist professions. What will happen is that hard earned expertise will be priced lower. How low? As low as AI technology can make it, think Communist era pay.

#ZeroHourWork / #work / #economics / #SupplyDemand <http://theverge.com/cs/features/877388/white-collar-workers-training-ai-mercor> (paywall) / <https://archive.md/kAiZL>

"It is hard to communicate how much #programming has changed due to #AI in the last two months: not gradually and over time in the 'progress as usual' way, but specifically this last December," he said. "There are a number of asterisks but [in my opinion] #CodingAgents basically didn't work before December and basically work since – the #models have significantly higher quality, long-term coherence and tenacity and they can power through large and long tasks, well past enough that it is extremely disruptive to the default programming #workflow

#NanoClaw / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/01/nanoclaw_container_openclaw/