Kristi Noem, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kristi-noem-ice-gun-handling-video-b2730219.html">gun-loving</a> former South Dakota governor who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/07/kristi-noem-trump-secretary-homeland-security">now runs Homeland Security</a>, was rushed to the hospital this week for a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/politics/kristi-noem-hostpital">severe allergic reaction</a> — and she just so happened to have visited a biohazard lab run by our nation's top allergy specialists the day prior.
On June 16, per a photo <a href="https://x.com/SecKennedy/status/1934739031276875933">posted on X</a> by Health and Human Services director Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Noem visited the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where the bulk of the United States' biodefense experiments — including its <a href="https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/covid-19-research-integrated-research-facility">research into COVID-19</a> and Ebola — are conducted.
The HomeSec head was seen standing alongside RFK Jr. and his <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/08/398144903/like-father-like-son-not-exactly-when-it-comes-to-rand-and-ron-paul">fellow political nepo baby</a>, GOP senator Rand Paul, as they posed awkwardly in front of the NIAID sign. Though we don't know exactly what the trio was doing there, we could hazard some guesses given the shared <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/23/politics/kristi-noem-south-dakota-coronavirus">COVID skepticism</a> and <a href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/top-republican-airs-concerns-about-rfks-bully-pulpit-and-vaccine-hesitancy">general anti-scientific sentiments</a> between them.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
With <a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sec_Noem</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRandPaul?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenRandPaul</a> inspecting the biological hazard labs at Fort Detrick. <a href="https://t.co/Mt9rqo5Iq7">pic.twitter.com/Mt9rqo5Iq7</a>
&mdash; Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecKennedy/status/1934739031276875933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/medialibrary/assets/photo/61367">photos published</a> by the Department of Homeland Security on its official website, Noem and her comrades were seen not only shaking hands with fatigue-wearing military leaders at Fort Detrick, but also watching lab workers do important-looking experiments.
Though Noem <a href="https://apnews.com/article/south-dakota-kristi-noem-coronavirus-pandemic-0d58c61ba20c8bf9ba4ee02ef46b1da0">infamously opposed masking</a> during the early days of the pandemic, she has not, to her credit, ever proposed any conspiracy theories about the origins of the novel coronavirus. The same can't be said of Paul, who has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/20/science/covid-lab-leak-wuhan.html">long been outspoken</a> in his insistence that the virus escaped from a high-security lab in Wuhan, China.
So dedicated is the Kentucky Republican to the "lab leak" theory that he <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/11/22/rand-paul-senate-investigation-covid-19-origin-lab-leak-theory-anthony-fauci-nih/">declared last November</a> that he would be starting an investigation into its origins. Soon after Noem <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/puppy-killer-trump-cabinet">became Homeland Security secretary</a> under president Donald Trump's second administration, Paul <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/reps/dr-paul-issues-subpoenas-to-fourteen-agencies-regarding-covid-19-origins-and-risky-gain-of-function-research/">got her department's help</a> in subpoenaing federal agencies about said theory.
RFK Jr., meanwhile, has a way more old school reason to visit the biohazard lab. He has for years stridently argued that <a href="https://www.protectourcare.org/fact-sheet-rfk-jr-spread-conspiracy-that-lyme-disease-came-from-a-military-bioweapon/">Lyme disease was an escaped bioweapon</a> cooked up by the US military that escaped from a lab similar to NIAID's at Fort Detrick.
Because there's not much information about what went on during the trio's so-called "inspection" aside from the photo ops, it's anyone's guess what Noem, Paul, and Kennedy encountered inside that lab, or if it had anything to do with her hospitalization the subsequent day.
Still, it's incredibly ironic that she was rushed to the hospital with an allergic reaction right after visiting a facility run by an agency dedicated to studying such health issues — the same one that <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/hhs-niaid-irf-ebola-disease-research-stop/">RFK Jr. has already attacked</a> during his tenure at the helm of our nation's healthcare.
More on crackpot politicos: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/male-politicians-cosmetic-procedures">Male Politicians Are Getting Wild Plastic Surgery Procedures</a>

Lab Leak

What a coincidence!

Department of Homeland Security Head Visited Biohazard Lab One Day Before Hospitalization

A Cybertruck owner in Texas was burned to death after crashing his vehicle in a ditch and becoming trapped inside.
According to a lawsuit filed by his widow and parents against the Elon Musk-led EV maker, the fire burned so hot that his bones literally disintegrated.
The 47-year-old, named Michael Sheehan, "burned to death at 5,000°F — a fire so hot his bones experienced thermal fracture," the lawsuit reads, as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tesla-cybertruck-lawsuit-driver-burned-bones-disintegrated-b2771728.html">quoted by The Independent</a>.
"He was eight inches shorter in length than he was before he burned," their attorney, Scott West, told the newspaper. "That's thermal fracture."
The incident is only the latest in a string of incidents in which drivers become trapped inside their Tesla after a crash. Experts have warned that in many models, the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/trapped-inside-tesla">manual door unlock can be difficult to find</a>. There have also been plenty of incidents of the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/four-die-trapped-burning-tesla">electronic doors not opening</a>.
And in case the vehicle does go up in a blaze, the lithium-ion batteries will fuel a fierce fire for a very long time, making it <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-fire-junkyard-weeks">extremely difficult to put out</a> for the fire department.
That's especially alarming for the Cybertruck, which has been recalled a whopping eight times for major design flaws, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-recalling-cybertrucks-accelerator">from accelerators that can get stuck</a> to giant body panels <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-held-together-glue">that can become unglued</a>.
A different crash in November involved a young man who <a href="https://oaklandside.org/2025/03/18/cybertruck-crash-report-says-witness-could-not-open-door-to-save-victims/">desperately tried but failed</a> to save his three friends trapped inside a raging Cybertruck fire in Piedmont, California.
According to the latest lawsuit, Sheehan would've survived if it had been virtually any other vehicle. However, the Cybertruck was "effectively designed," trapping him inside and incinerating him.
It must've been an absolutely brutal way to go.
"Every religion has a version of hell, and every version of hell has fire," West told the Independent. "It is the most excruciating and longest torture of any death. Whether it's steam or fire or electrical, the nerves are literally exposed to everything. It's horrific."
The deceased's family claims his Cybertruck "left the road," struck a concrete culvert, and triggered a chain reaction in the battery system that ignited it.
Without power, Sheehan was unable to operate the truck's electronic doors. Even the external door handles failed, the suit alleges.
"Not only are you riding on top of 3,000 pounds of batteries, this ‘spaceship’ design is a double-edged sword," West told the Independent.
However, Sheehan did have "some alcohol in his system," the attorney admitted, which still "shouldn't sign his death warrant."
Besides drivers being incinerated at thousands of degrees, Tesla has also been caught up in many other lawsuits over its infamous driver assistance features, which has proven to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-class-action-fsd-lawsuit-misleading">lull drivers into a false sense of security</a>.
West told the Independent that he hopes there won't be any more incinerations in the future.
"I’d love for them to put me out of business on Tesla Cybertrucks," he said. "There’s my challenge to Elon. Put me out of business. Make these vehicles so safe that I don’t have to do this anymore."
More on the Cybetruck: <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-stock-cybertruck-production">Tesla Stock Plummets as Company Abruptly Halts Production of Cybertruck and Model Y</a>

Hellfire

"Every religion has a version of hell, and every version of hell has fire."

Cybertruck Burned So Severely That Its Driver's Bones Disintegrated

Were you aware that Honda, one of the world's largest automakers, has had spaceflight ambitions of its own? No? Well, it's just announced itself in a big way.
On Tuesday, the Japanese conglomerate surprised us all by <a href="https://global.honda/en/topics/2025/c_2025-06-17ceng.html">declaring</a> that its research arm, Honda R&amp;D, had successfully launched and landed its prototype reusable rocket, in a major step towards achieving its dream of suborbital spaceflight by 2029.
The footage that Honda shared, though brief, is impressive. The roughly 20-foot rocket springs off the ground with little effort, elegantly retracting its legs before taking to the skies, reaching a maximum altitude of 870 feet.
Moments later, the nimble craft comes in for a touchdown, unfurling its landing gear with similar finesse as before, and finally setting itself down on the launchpad without so much as a bump. When the smoke clears, it's still standing tall.
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再使用型ロケット実験機の 離着陸実験に成功 🎉 
本日、自社開発の再使用型ロケットの実験機を用いて、Honda初となる高度300mまでの離着陸実験を行いました。
今回の成功により、再使用型ロケットの研究段階を一歩進めることができました！… <a href="https://t.co/IGxMxZ5RyN">pic.twitter.com/IGxMxZ5RyN</a>
&mdash; Honda 本田技研工業 (@HondaJP) <a href="https://twitter.com/HondaJP/status/1934940854247997745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
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We mean "tall" in the figurative sense, by the way. With its diminutive stature and a dry weight of just under 2,000 pounds, it's a pretty small rocket. For comparison, SpaceX's first reusable rocket prototype, Grasshopper, which debuted in 2012, was over five times the Honda vehicle's height at 106 feet tall. 
Out of the blue as it may be, it's been a long time coming. In 2021, Honda <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/honda-officials-detail-plans-to-build-a-small-reusable-orbital-rocket/?comments-page=1#comments">teased</a> that it had already started developing a prototype rocket engine. There's been little buzz about the reusable rocket since then, but it hasn't hidden its broader space ambitions. In April, Honda shared its plan to test a <a href="https://global.honda/en/tech/Circulative_renewable_energy_system/">renewable energy system for the Moon</a> on the International Space Station. That month, Honda also <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-04/honda-sets-up-dedicated-business-in-us-to-tap-into-space-boom?sref=YfHlo0rL">created a space business unit</a> in the US to promote collaboration with American companies.
It sounds like Honda believes that space capabilities could augment its other enterprises, similarly to how SpaceX uses its own rockets to maintain its <a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-radio-signal-emissions">Starlink</a> satellite-based internet service, or how Amazon <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/642456/amazon-is-ready-to-launch-its-starlink-competitor">plans to do the same with Blue Origin</a>, which has its own satellite service in the wings. 
"Honda started rocket research based on the belief that it has the potential to contribute more to people's daily lives by launching satellites with its own rockets, that could lead to various services that are also compatible with other Honda business," the company said in the <a href="https://global.honda/en/topics/2025/c_2025-06-17ceng.html">statement</a>.
As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/science/honda-conducts-surprise-reusable-rocket-test-aims-spaceflight-by-2029-2025-06-17/">Reuters </a><a href="https://www.reuters.com/science/honda-conducts-surprise-reusable-rocket-test-aims-spaceflight-by-2029-2025-06-17/">noted</a> in its coverage, Honda's domestic rival, Toyota, also has skin in the space game: earlier this year, the world's largest automaker <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyotas-autonomous-driving-unit-invest-hokkaido-based-space-infrastructure-firm-2025-01-06/">announced</a> that its research unit would invest in the Japanese aerospace startup Interstellar Technologies to support the mass production of its rockets.
Honda, for its part, is either keeping its cards close to its chest or is still feeling out its next move, stressing that "no decisions have been made regarding commercialization of these rocket technologies."
More on spaceflight: <a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-failing-starship">SpaceX May Be Failing to Get Starship Working at All</a>

Reach For the Skies

Whoa.

Honda Enters Space Race, Successfully Tests Reusable Rocket

Certain sought-after AI engineers might want to jot this down: Mark Zuckerberg is apparently offering sign-on bonuses as high as $100 million — yes, a full tenth of a billion dollars — to join Meta's new "<a href="https://futurism.com/meta-scaleai-superintelligence">superintelligence</a>" AI lab.
There's only one caveat to snagging this life-altering offer: you need to work at OpenAI to get the invite.
According to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/sam-altman-says-meta-tried-to-poach-openai-staff-with-100-million-bonuses-mark-zuckerberg.html">OpenAI CEO Sam Altman</a>, Zuckerberg has been trying to poach his employees by offering nine-figure welcome bonuses, on top of annual salaries ranging anywhere from seven to nine figures.
Altman, sometimes said to be Zuckerberg's <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/meta-ai-vs-openai-race-dominate-landscape-praneeth-narisetty-cgase">chief co-competitor</a> in the mythic "<a href="https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/us-china-ai-race">AI race</a>," complained that Meta has attempted to hire "a lot of people" from his company. "So far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," he said on his brother Jack Altman's "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZUG0pr5hBo">Uncapped</a>" podcast.
Poaching is a common — though sometimes <a href="https://resources.workable.com/stories-and-insights/employee-poaching">legally dubious</a> — tactic in the highfalutin business world, and usually happens when a firm looks to scoop up a rival's high-profile executives, and sometimes the executive's <a href="https://hrzone.com/blog/is-your-best-team-about-to-be-poached/">underlings</a>.
In the US tech space, poaching usually looks like "big tech" firms nabbing promising young staffers from up-and-coming startups, fueling <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/13/big-techs-poaching-talent-00167968">widespread allegations</a> that the American tech industry runs on <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/08/19/us-big-tech-monopolies-neo-feudalism/">monopoly power</a> rather than innovation.
For Meta, poaching is both a <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Meta+poaching+-OpenAI&amp;oq=Meta+poaching+-OpenAI&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRiPAjIHCAIQIRiPAjIHCAMQIRiPAtIBCDI5MTBqMGo0qAIAsAIA&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">familiar move</a>, and likely a necessary one, if the company hopes to eke out the monopoly on consumer large language models (LLMs.)
The company recently acquired the <a href="https://futurism.com/meta-scaleai-superintelligence">sketchy startup Scale AI</a>, and is working to integrate its employees into Zuckerberg's superintelligence AI unit. That recently formed team is widely understood as Meta's last-ditch attempt to pull out all the stops in the face of <a href="https://futurism.com/zuckerberg-furious-llama">mounting LLM failures</a>.
"I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Sam Altman quipped. "Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things."
In all, Meta's seeking to fill 50 seats, with Zuckerberg reported to be <a href="https://www.theverge.com/command-line-newsletter/687173/inside-mark-zuckerbergs-ai-hiring-spree">personally involved</a> in recruitment. His company has successfully poached researchers from Google's AI research group DeepMind, <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/meta-taps-top-researchers-from-google-sesame-for-new-ai-lab-ws-l-19619819.htm">including Jack Rae</a>, the team's principal scientist.
But whether Zuckerberg's deep pockets will turn the tide on Meta's lagging LLM development remains to be seen. Altman, of course, has his doubts that you can buy an innovative team outright.
"I think that there’s a lot of people, and Meta will be a new one, that are saying 'we're just going to try to copy OpenAI,'" he said. "That basically never works. You’re always going to where your competitor was, and you don’t build up a culture of learning what it’s like to innovate."
OpenAI, meanwhile, recently acquired the expertise of former Apple bigwig Jony Ive in a <a href="https://futurism.com/weird-io-openai">$6.4 billion acquisition</a> in May — making big spending seem more like the rule, rather than the exception.
More on Meta: <a href="https://futurism.com/meta-ai-embarassing">People Don't Realize Meta's AI App Is Publicly Blasting Their Humiliating Secrets to the World</a>

Deep Poaching

Now that's a signing bonus.

Desperate Zuckerberg Apparently Offering OpenAI Staffers $100 Million Bonuses to Come Save His Failing AI Efforts

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is gushing over president Donald Trump's mammoth <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-embraced-ai-exploded-deepseek">$500 billion AI infrastructure project</a>, dubbed Stargate.
The buzzy initiative <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-announces-private-sector-ai-infrastructure-investment/">made headlines in January</a>, with the likes of OpenAI, Japanese investment group SoftBank, and the software giant Oracle pledging a combined $100 billion to build enormous data centers to run extremely power-hungry AI models.
Altman, who has an enormous vested interest in the project, is heaping praise on the Trump administration's priorities.
"President Trump has been very good, very clear about the need for policy to let people build data centers and power quickly," Altman said at a recent tech conference in Manhattan, as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-06-16/sam-altman-chats-virtual-companions-at-mizuho-tech-conference?sref=YfHlo0rL">quoted by Bloomberg</a>.
"The speed with which the crew building there right now is going, it’s just extraordinary," he added, referring to an enormous Stargate data center, which is <a href="https://www.costar.com/article/573467529/nations-first-stargate-data-center-in-west-texas-is-already-in-expansion-mode">currently being built in Abilene, Texas</a>.
In short, it's exactly the kind of groveling and rehashing we'd expect from the CEO of one of the leading AI companies. OpenAI has benefited greatly from an administration that has looked very kindly on the AI industry. In January, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence/">signed an executive order</a> that revoked existing Biden-era AI policies, in a purported effort to remove "barriers to American leadership" in AI.
Last month, Republican lawmakers also <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-law-ban-ai-regulation">slipped language</a> into the Budget Reconciliation Bill that would ban states outright from introducing AI regulations or laws.
Trump's Stargate project, in particular, has had investor funds flowing, with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/11/stargate-partner-crusoe-lands-750-million-credit-line-from-brookfield.html">contractors landing nine-figure credit lines</a> to build out data centers.
Altman personally <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/trump-announce-private-sector-ai-infrastructure-investment-cbs-reports-2025-01-21/">appeared in the White House</a> alongside Trump during the January announcement. And with the dollar signs figuratively popping up in his eyes, the CEO kissed the ring.
"Watching POTUS more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him," he <a href="https://x.com/sama/status/1882234406662000833">tweeted</a> at the time. "I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!"
Complicating matters is that the relationship has angered billionaire and AI rival Elon Musk, who cofounded OpenAI alongside Altman in 2015, but <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-quits-research-group">rage quit in 2019</a>.
Things got so heated that Trump reportedly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-trump-openai-stargate-abu-dhabi-e2689615">adjusted the schedule</a> of a recent trip to the Middle East and canceled a public announcement of a new OpenAI deal to calm a scorchingly jealous Musk down.
The two billionaires have butted heads on a number of occasions. In February, Altman <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-elon-musk-insecurity">excoriated the richest man in the world</a>.
"I feel for the guy," he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3vSkHAHIs4&amp;feature=youtu.be">told Bloomberg</a> at the time. "I don't think he's like a happy person. I do feel for him."
Considering the <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-musk-bromance-exploded">spectacular implosion</a> of Musk's relationship with the president, Altman appears to have had the last laugh. With Stargate data center buildouts well on the way, the CEO is set to cash in in a big way as the AI hype cycle continues.
More on Sam Altman: <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-altman-electricity-ai">Sam Altman Says "Significant Fraction" of Earth's Total Electricity Should Go to Running AI</a>

Kiss the Ring

"President Trump has been very good."

Sam Altman Heaps Praise on Donald Trump

You hear two wildly diverging narratives about AI lately.
One, emanating mainly from the tech sector, is that AI is not only <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-researchers-what-comes-after-humanity">poised to supersede human intelligence</a>, but is already radically changing the world and workforce. The other is that the tech's mostly a nothingburger, with the boosters from the first narrative <a href="https://futurism.com/internet-polluted-ai-slop">forcing its slop</a> into everyone's life, while cutting-edge AI systems remain flawed and <a href="https://futurism.com/chatgpt-polluted-ruined-ai-development">unlikely to improve</a> enough <a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/most-researchers-do-not-believe-agi-is-imminent-why-do-policymakers-act-otherwise/">to be really useful</a> for much, other than <a href="https://futurism.com/chatgpt-polluted-ruined-ai-development">filling the web with spam</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/chatgpt-mental-health-crises">triggering mental health crises</a>.
And yet corporate executives have wasted no time deploying the glitchy, untested tech on their companies, leading to a <a href="https://cbs4local.com/news/nation-world/us-companies-cut-jobs-amid-ai-investments-artificial-intelligence-proctor-gamble-microsoft-citigroup-walmart-klarna-disney-paramount-warner-bros">verifiable uptick</a> in white collar layoffs. But if AI literally <a href="https://futurism.com/professors-company-ai-agents">can't do the job</a>, then what gives?
One worker affected by the turmoil was recently <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ai-job-layoffs-tech-unemployment-b2769796.html">profiled by the Independent</a>. His experience is instructive, and indicative of this contradiction in so-called AI automation.
A software engineer of 21 years named Shawn K — that's not a pseudonym, according to the newspaper; his full last name is K — has become something of a poster child for workers whose lives have been disrupted by AI hype since he was laid off from his startup job in April of last year. As a tech worker, it seems he would have been instrumental in bringing about his own demise.
"We had been reorienting the company towards AI, adding on AI features all throughout the software and trying to capitalize on AI to our customers," K told the Independent. "Then shortly after that kind of restructuring and strategizing... I got laid off."
After his layoff, the veteran engineer struggled to find work. He eventually <a href="https://shawnfromportland.substack.com/p/the-great-displacement-is-already">moved into a trailer</a>, where he did gig work on meal delivery apps to stay afloat. After sending out over 800 job applications, he finally landed a gig as a contractor.
"I’m really convinced that anybody whose job is done on a computer all day is over," he told the Independent. "It’s just a matter of time."
Though K is now an <a href="https://shawnfromportland.substack.com/p/the-great-displacement-is-already">outspoken figure</a> on the topic of AI automation, the reality of his situation is a little more nuanced.
As tech critic Ed Zitron noted in a <a href="https://www.wheresyoured.at/subprimeai/">recent analysis</a>, the bill on Wall Street's vast <a href="https://bautisfinancial.com/big-tech-bets-on-a-i-and-wall-street-is-still-buying-in/">AI spending</a> is well past due. Faced with the financial reality of AI's failure to replace human labor, companies are likely turning to layoffs not because LLMs are suddenly doing everyone's jobs, but as a measure to <a href="https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/us-companies-cut-jobs-amid-ai-investments-artificial-intelligence-proctor-gamble-microsoft-citigroup-walmart-klarna-disney-paramount-warner-bros?photo=1">cut overhead costs</a> and improve margins.
Shawn K, an engineer making over $150,000 to code for a startup, represented a lot of overhead in a <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/vc-investors-startups-worried-bond-market">tumultuous business market</a>. Though LLMs spit out <a href="https://futurism.com/first-ai-software-engineer-devin-bungling-tasks">error-ridden code</a> more often than not, a budding market of "AI graders" — contract workers hired to do the tedious work of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2025/03/06/scale-ai-outlier-us/">fixing AI's wrong answers</a> — means K's former company can <a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/dont-be-fooled-much-ai-is-just-outsourcing-redux/">outsource</a> his work for a fraction of the cost.
Is it ethical? Only in a world fueled by <a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-exploited-labor-behind-artificial-intelligence/">growth at all costs</a>. But does it make business sense? Not for very long.
Ultimately, Zitron warns that the contradiction between billions in AI spending and AI's actual abilities will lead to a "subprime AI crisis" in which workers are forced to shoulder the tech industry's financial burden — sacrificing the humans that make their companies run, essentially, in order to make AI look good on paper.
"I fear tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs, and much of the tech industry will suffer as they realize that the only thing that can grow forever is cancer," Zitron writes. "The tech industry is building toward a grotesque reckoning with a lack of creativity enabled by an economy that rewards growth over innovation, monopolization over loyalty, and management over those who actually build things."
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/klarna-ceo-ai-replacing-jobs">CEO Says AI Will Replace So Many Jobs That It’ll Cause a Major Recession</a>

Terminated

Ominous.

Engineer: With AI, "Anybody Whose Job Is Done on a Computer All Day Is Over... It’s Just a Matter of Time"

The act of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180727-mansplaining-explained-in-one-chart">mansplaining</a> is alive and well on social media.
Since what feels like the dawn of time, overconfident men have condescendingly explained how things work, even when they're woefully wrong and unqualified.
Look no further than a baffling exchange on Bluesky after Meredith Whittaker, the president of encrypted chat platform Signal and chief advisor to the AI Now Institute, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/askbillmitchell.bsky.social/post/3lrta4cqcpc2k">promised</a> "no AI clutter, and no surveillance ads, whatever the rest of the industry does."
It was a striking commitment, given the overall trajectory of the tech industry; Whittaker was <a href="https://noyb.eu/en/whatsapp-getting-ads-using-personal-data-instagram-and-facebook">responding to news</a> that Meta-owned WhatsApp was pilfering personal data from Instagram and Facebook to pollute the platform with ads.
But it didn't take long for the mansplaining to begin.
"Signal will [sic] some sort of [large language model] integration in it soon," self-professed "tech geek" Bill Mitchell replied, a suggestion that was <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/meredithmeredith.bsky.social/post/3lrs5pe2qqk25">immediately shut down</a> by Whittaker herself.
Mitchell <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/askbillmitchell.bsky.social/post/3lrson3iytk2k">dug in his heels</a>, proclaiming that it's only a matter of time, and asserting that "engineers have already began laying out the ground work" for integrating AI chatbot tech on Signal.
Many other users quickly came to Whittaker's defense.
"Are you suggesting that you, random dipshit on the Internet, have a better view into Signal’s product roadmap than the actual president of Signal?" <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/briesmith.xyz/post/3lrt3x7w5fs2c">asked</a> one perplexed Bluesky user.
Suddenly, Mitchell became the victim, accusing the user of "name calling" and becoming "hostile."
"So yes, I do think I have a better insight than the president of the company," Mitchell <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/askbillmitchell.bsky.social/post/3lrta4cqcpc2k">mansplained</a> further. "I'll wait while you try to remind me that Signal is non-profit, and I retort with something clever like 'And how do you developers feed themselves.'"
Bystanders were left shaking their heads.
"Bill, this is the kind of mansplaining audacity that’s preserved in museums for future generations to learn from as a cautionary tale," data journalist and consultant Faine Greenwood <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/faineg.bsky.social/post/3lrtllnz52c2w">chimed in</a>.
The exchange highlights how sexism still proliferates, particularly in a field dominated by men. According to a November <a href="https://www.randstad.com/randstad-ai-equity/">report</a> by global recruiting and talent company Randstad, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/torconstantino/2024/11/12/women-make-up-29-of-the-ai-workforce---heres-how-to-fix-it/">only 29 percent</a> of the AI-skilled workforce are women. A separate analysis found that <a href="https://www.interface-eu.org/publications/ai-gender-gap">women comprise only 22 percent</a> of AI talent globally.
Worse yet, AI technology itself could widen the gender gap even further. Earlier this year, the United Nations' International Labour Organization <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/ai-poses-bigger-threat-womens-work-than-mens-says-report-2025-05-20/">found</a> that jobs traditionally done by women <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-labor-gender-equity">are more vulnerable</a> to the impact of AI.
Meanwhile, on social media, the second election of Donald Trump was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/sexist-attacks-women-surge-social-media-trumps-win-report-finds-rcna179688">followed by a massive surge</a> in sexist attacks on women, researchers have found. The rise of far-right conservatism has <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/12/young-men-sexist/681034/">driven a culture of misogyny and sexism</a>, a worrying reversal that's rapidly undoing years of progress.
In short, it's no wonder men are willing to mansplain AI policies to the literal president of a company.
"Ah, to have the confidence of a mediocre white man," one Bluesky user <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/schwatd.bsky.social/post/3lruveh2kfs2t">joked</a>.
More on AI and women: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-labor-gender-equity">AI Is Replacing Women's Jobs Specifically</a>

Splain Truth

"So yes, I do think I have a better insight than the president of the company."

"Mansplaining Audacity": President of Signal Watches in Bemusement as Random Man Explains Her Company's AI Strategy to Her

According to tech billionaire and OpenAI CEO <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/01/10/ai-agents-sam-altman-workers">Sam Altman</a>, 2025 was supposed to be the year "when AI agents will work."
Despite widespread hype, so-called "<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/14/no-one-knows-what-the-hell-an-ai-agent-is/">AI agents</a>" — a software product that's supposed to complete human-level tasks autonomously — have yet to live up to their name. As of April, even the best AI agent could only finish <a href="https://futurism.com/professors-company-ai-agents">24 percent</a> of the jobs assigned to it. Still, that didn't stop business executives from swarming to the software like flies to roadside carrion, gutting <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/ibm-ceo-ai-replaced-hundreds-of-human-resources-staff/491341">entire departments</a> worth of human workers to make way for their AI replacements.
But as AI agents have yet to even <a href="https://www.cfodive.com/news/tech-firms-bet-big-on-ai-agents-facing-tremendous-roi-pressure-ey/748950/">pay for themselves</a> — spilling their employer's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/02/ai-assistant-transcription-work-secrets-meetings/">embarrassing secrets</a> all the while — more and more executives are waking up to the <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-models-falling-apart">sloppy reality</a> of AI hype.
A <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-06-10-gartner-predicts-50-percent-of-organizations-will-abandon-plans-to-reduce-customer-service-workforce-due-to-ai">recent survey</a> by the business analysis and consulting firm Gartner, for instance, found that out of 163 business executives, a full half said their plans to "significantly reduce their customer service workforce" would be abandoned by 2027.
This is forcing corporate PR spinsters to rewrite speeches about AI "<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/how-ai-agents-poised-to-alter-work">transcending automation</a>," instead leaning on phrases like "hybrid approach" and "transitional challenges" to describe the fact that they still need humans to run a workplace.
"The human touch remains irreplaceable in many interactions, and organizations must balance technology with human empathy and understanding," said Kathy Ross, Gartner's senior director of customer service and support analysis.
That's a vibe employees have been feeling for a while now. Another <a href="https://www.goto.com/-/media/pdfs/ebook/pulse-of-work-2025-survey.pdf">report</a>, this one by IT firm GoTo and research agency Workplace Intelligence, found that 62 percent of employees are currently saying that AI is "significantly overhyped."
Likewise, only 45 percent of corporate IT managers reported having a formal AI policy in place, suggesting a <a href="https://futurism.com/time-workers-save-ai-jobs">scattered and hasty rollout</a> of the tech. Of those IT leaders, 56 percent said "security concerns" and "integration challenges" were the main barriers to AI adoption.
The reports come as a number of businesses have already made the humiliating walk-back of shame in recent weeks.
Finance startup Klarna, for example, reduced its workforce by 22 percent throughout 2024 ahead of the long-promised AI revolution. But then the company did an about-face on its AI strategy back in May, announcing a "<a href="https://futurism.com/klarna-openai-humans-ai-back">recruitment drive</a>" to bring all those meat bags back to work.
According <a href="https://www.wheresyoured.at/saaspocalypse-now/">to tech critic Ed Zitron</a>, the whole agentic charade can be explained by the fact that "it isn't obvious what any of these AI-powered products do, and when you finally work it out, they don't seem to do that much."
"These 'agents' are branded to sound like intelligent lifeforms that can make intelligent decisions," Zitron writes, "but are really just trumped-up automations that require enterprise customers to invest time programming them."
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-ai-researcher-hallucinates">OpenAI Shows Off AI "Researcher" That Compiles Detailed Reports, Struggles to Differentiate "Information From Rumors"</a>

Air Castles

"The human touch remains irreplaceable in many interactions."

Companies That Replaced Humans With AI Are Realizing Their Mistake

President Donald Trump <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5347224-trump-military-parade-criticism-cost/">spent $45 million</a> in taxpayer dollars to throw himself a huge birthday parade — and now, he's apparently mad at everyone involved for not making it more fabulous.
In an <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-reamed-out-hegseth-for-flop-birthday-parade-author/">interview with the Daily Beast,</a> Trump biographer Michael Wolff revealed that the president was none too pleased with the underwhelming pomp that marked the 250th anniversary of the Army — and, perhaps just as importantly in his mind, his birthday.
Known as much for his cultivation of insider sources as for being an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/03/michael-wolffs-unbelievable-sometimes-literally-tell-all-about-the-trump-administration/">unreliable narrator</a>, Wolff's 2018 book "Fire and Fury" documented Trump's outrageous first year in the White House with aplomb and — according to some critics — a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/09/how-did-michael-wolffs-fire-and-fury-get-past-a-fact-checker-its-not-clear-that-the-book-was-vetted/">non-trivial amount of creative license</a>. As such, we have to take what he says with a grain of salt — but given all the outrageous things this president <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/sep/22/donald-trump-nfl-national-anthem-protests">has</a> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-trump-and-zelenskyy-said-during-their-heated-argument-in-the-oval-office">done</a> and said in public, it's impossible to throw any of the biographer's claims out the window wholesale.
Take, for instance, Wolff's retelling of how Trump reacted to the jovial soldiers who marched through the streets of Washington, DC during the president's long-awaited military parade.
"He’s p*ssed off at the soldiers," the writer told the Beast. "He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face."
There is, infamously, little love lost between Trump and the military. A few months before the presidential election he lost in 2020, the billionaire was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/">quoted in The Atlantic</a> as referring to fallen troops as "suckers" and "losers" — an alleged comment that was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/">corroborated by John Kelly</a>, a retired Marine general who served as Trump's longtime chief of staff during his first term.
The optics of the parade were dodgy in other ways that likely got under Trump's image-sensitive skin: one viral video showed a procession of audibly squeaky and old-fashioned-looking tanks that evoked anything but overwhelming military strength.
When looking for someone to blame for the insufficient fanfare, the president apparently turned to Pete Hegseth, a former <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/pete-hegseth">Fox News personality</a> who was nominated as defense secretary this year even after <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-pentagon-leaks-signalgate-trump.html">allegations</a> of financial mismanagement, sexual assault, and a debilitating drinking problem.
"He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this," Wolff told the Beast. "Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, 'The tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this?'"
In an attempt to cover for the military's failure to please its dear leader, Trump reportedly told White House communications director Steven Cheung to put word out that 250,000 people attended — even though people who went to the event, per Wolff's account, said there were "maybe" 40,000 people at most.
Whether Trump would have to delegate such spin himself is anyone's guess, but there is some past precedent for him overblowing his DC events. His first inauguration in 2017 was so sparsely attended that it was <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/21/14347298/trump-inauguration-crowd-size">visible from photos</a> — and as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/donald-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-photos-edited">The Guardian revealed</a> more than 18 months later, the White House intervened to doctor crowd photos to make it appear more well-attended than it was.
In that long-ago instance, the White House cried "<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38707722">fake news</a>" — and when responding to Wolff's latest claims, Trump's representative, Cheung, said pretty much the same thing, albeit it in comically colorful language.
"[Wolff] routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination," the White House communications director said, "only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' that has rotted his peanut-sized brain."
Cheung also called Wolff a "lying sack of sh*t" who has "been proven to be a fraud" — both epithets that could have come directly from the president's mouth.
More on Trump behind the scenes: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-confronted-musk-privately">Trump Confronted Musk in Private Before Their Blowout Public Fight</a>

Rain On My Parade

"He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this."

Trump Is Apparently Raging About His Embarrassing Birthday Parade

Tesla is pausing production of the Cybertruck and its <a href="https://futurism.com/crisis-tesla-sales-model-y-refresh">newly-retooled Model Y</a>, and the stock market is already responding.
On the heels of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-y-cybertruck-production-pause-july-4-2025-6">new Business Insider report</a> about the production shutdown, which is purportedly slated for the week of June 30 based on insider interviews, the company's stock fell to about $316, which was almost four percent lower than it was at the start of the day. To make matters worse, Tesla stock was already sliding thanks to CEO Elon Musk's Robotaxi pilot <a href="https://futurism.com/teslas-robotaxi-launch-chaos">being pushed yet again</a>.
While Tesla's stock fortunes are still up from <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=june+5+tesla+stock&amp;oq=june+5+tesla+stock&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBTIHCAgQIRifBTIHCAkQIRifBdIBCDk4MzNqMGo3qAIAsAIA&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">June 5's massive 14 percent drop to $273</a> — coinciding, of course, with Musk's explosive feud with president Donald Trump — there's been yet another dramatic dropoff as the multi-hyphenate CEO moves from one crisis to another.
With Tesla sales already depressed thanks to <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-ponders-unpopularity">Musk's politicking</a>, the new Model Y and the Robotaxi launch were supposed to bring the electric carmaker <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-robotaxi-save-tesla">back from the brink</a>. Instead, these dueling crises are proving to be yet another example of Musk over-promising and under-delivering.
As BI notes, this is the third time this year alone that Cybertruck production has been shut down as the geometric lemon proves not only to be a <a href="https://futurism.com/crowd-cheers-tv-shows-cybertrucks-burning">beacon for anti-Musk protesters</a> to take out their frustrations, but also to be a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-owner-mocked-children">pretty crappy car</a> in general.
Though production pauses are <a href="https://www.kbb.com/car-news/tariffs-pause-production-import-of-some-cars/">par for the course</a> in the automotive world at large, four Austin Gigafactory employees told BI that they were pretty rare at Tesla — until recently, that is.
Now that the Cybertruck and Model Y lines are down at Gigafactory, all eyes will be on Robotaxi — and given that its <a href="https://futurism.com/teslas-robotaxi-launch-chaos">launch date was pushed</a> once this month already, things aren't looking great for Tesla on that front either.
More on Tesla trouble: <a href="https://futurism.com/video-elon-musk-tesla-launch-not-full-self-driving">Old Video Shows Elon Musk Saying That What Tesla's Launching This Month Wouldn't Count as Full Self-Driving</a>