“Sir Christopher Hohn’s hedge fund TCI has dumped almost all of its $8bn stake in #USA software giant #Microsoft, telling #investors that #ArtificialIntelligence poses a threat to the company’s dominant #software products. TCI, one of the world’s biggest and best-performing hedge funds, has held a large stake in the #tech giant for much of the past decade, but slashed it from 10 per cent of its portfolio at the end of last year to just 1 per cent by the end of March, according to an #investor letter seen by the FT.”

Is this the signal that the AI fund cycle is ending?

#ChristopherHohn / #TCI / #HedgeFund / #AI / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://archive.md/vlZ1Q> / (paywall) <https://www.ft.com/content/ac5d90a9-b010-4529-9616-706420920681>

“Cloudflare has revealed it will farewell 1,100 staff, due to its current and future use of AI.

In a blog post that oozes Orwellian “doublespeak,” CEO #MatthewPrince and President/COO #MichelleZatlyn used the headline “Building for the future” to share the email they sent to all #employees

That mail opens: “We are writing to let you know directly that we’ve made the decision to reduce #Cloudflare’s #workforce by more than 1,100 employees globally.”

The post explains, “Cloudflare’s usage of #AI has increased by more than 600% in the last three months alone. Employees across the company from #engineering to #HR to #finance to #marketing run thousands of #AIAgent sessions each day to get their work done.”

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar < https://www.theregister.com/off-prem/2026/05/08/cloudflare-to-fire-1100-staff-whose-jobs-just-arent-ai-enough/5235536> / source <https://blog.cloudflare.com/building-for-the-future/>

“Staff at #WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they are among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in #AI, with #workers criticising the wait as stressful and “ridiculous”.

The comments come as its founder on Tuesday told #investors an #AIAgent could learn a human’s job in just 15 minutes, according to the #AustralianFinancialReview.

The Australian Stock Exchange-listed company announced in late February that it would #LayOff almost 30% of its #workforce across 40 countries, with 2,000 of the 7,000 jobs set to go over the next 18 months.

Some areas would be hit harder than others, with product and development and customer service teams expected to be reduced by up to 50%, the chief #executive, #ZubinAppoo, told an investor briefing in February.

“The era of manually writing #code as the core act of #engineering is over,” Appoo said.”

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar / #AIAutomation / #ASX / #Australia <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/07/your-craft-is-obsolete-wisetech-staff-in-limbo-as-ai-touted-as-better-than-humans>

“Bosses betting on #AI to slash #headcount and boost #margins are discovering an uncomfortable truth: the #strategy isn't working.

New research from #Gartner lays out the problem in stark terms. The analyst firm surveyed 350 global businesses - all with annual revenues above $1 billion, all piloting or deploying #IntelligentAutomation - and found that around 80 percent had cut #staff as a result.

The returns? Elusive. Companies that reduced their workforces were just as likely to see negative outcomes or marginal gains as they were to generate any meaningful return on #investment”

PHB’s need to be schooled in critical thinking. Was there ever the case for Engineer replacement instead of AI as just another tool?

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar / #ROE <https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/05/06/ai-layoffs-backfire-as-cutting-staff-doesnt-cut-it-firms-warned/5230631>

“A 30-hour timeline of how Cursor's agent, Railway's #API, and an industry that markets #AISafety faster than it ships it took down a small business serving rental companies across the country. I'm Jer Crane, founder of PocketOS. We build #software that rental businesses — primarily car rental operators — use to run their entire operations: reservations, payments, customer management, vehicle tracking, the works. Some of our customers are five-year subscribers who literally cannot operate their businesses without us. Yesterday afternoon, an #AICodingAgent — #Cursor running #Anthropic's flagship #ClaudeOpus 4.6 — deleted our production database and all volume-level backups in a single API call to Railway, our infrastructure provider.

It took 9 seconds.

The agent then, when asked to explain itself, produced a written #confession enumerating the specific safety rules it had violated.”

When you use a cheap-arse #DBA.

#AI / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork source <https://x.com/lifeof_jer/status/2048103471019434248> comments <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47911524>

“Meta intends ​to conduct a first wave of sweeping layoffs planned for this year on May 20, with more ‌coming later, three sources familiar with the plans told Reuters. The #Facebook and #Instagram owner will #LayOff about 10% of its global #workforce, or close to 8,000 employees, in that initial round, one of the sources said.

The company is planning further layoffs in the second half of the ​year, the three sources said, although details of those #cuts, including date and size, were not yet settled. ​#Executives may adjust their plans as they observe developments in #ArtificialIntelligence capabilities, the sources added”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #Meta <https://reuters.com/world/meta-targets-may-20-first-wave-layoffs-additional-cuts-later-2026-2026-04-17/>

Choices are sacrifices. And, inevitably, that means giving up something that you want, for something you want more.

- Clinton Jones #WhiteCollar