NYTimes: “Whether a productivity boom ends well depends on whether government holds society together while it happens, sustaining a sense of fairness and shared destiny. When wealth concentrates and disaffection spreads, booms end badly. Look no further than the rise of Communism and fascism after the Industrial Revolution, or the populist backlash to globalization we are living through now. Much is unknown about exactly how A.I. disruption will play out. But the potential is huge. Our internal Bridgewater analysis suggests that 18 percent of current American jobs could be displaced by A.I. in the next five years. And even though some new jobs will be created — particularly those where human relationships are integral to the value of the work, like nursing or hospitality — disruption from the societal transition is extremely likely regardless. Governments must act before the inevitable backlash fully arrives at this A.I.-driven labor displacement, not after.”
FT and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award 2026 — the longlist: “The longlist for 2026, the 22nd edition of the prestigious award, is again rich with explorations of the transformative impact of technology, and its 15 titles fit into three broad groups: business and power, business and innovation, and business and society.”
Crunchbase: “Ryan Ziegler, general partner at Edison Partners, told Crunchbase News via email that while funding in physical AI has historically been concentrated in robotics and humanoids, defense, and foundational models, he sees the opportunity as much broader. Physical AI, in his view, represents the convergence of software, hardware, sensors and IoT, and services across a wide variety of real-world applications. What is changing, according to Ziegler, is AI’s ability to process data from those systems at such a scale and speed to generate useful operational insights, while the underlying hardware becomes cheaper and more accessible. “Even our mobile phones now have LIDAR scanners on them,” he noted, “democratizing the ability to map objects and spaces.””
NYTimes: “Chatbots are pushing us toward a post-human Internet..In matters of work, school and even romance, we turn to A.I. chatbots. But what happens when the bots begin talking to one another?”
