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In its latest round of mass layoffs, Amazon is eliminating 16,000 jobsfollowing a round of 14,000 cuts back in the fall. The tech giant did not cite artificial intelligence in a memo to employees, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has previously denied that the company is slashing headcount due to AI. But theres no denying AI plays a role, whether or not these layoffs can actually be attributed to it. Jassy has explicitly said that adopting AI across Amazon will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains. Even though there is limited data to suggest AI is directly responsible for the scourge of layoffs across corporate America, plenty of CEOs have made clear that they believe the technology will transform their workplaces, and that their employees need to get on board. Workers are listeningand they’re anxious about what widespread AI adoption means for their job prospects in a challenging market. A new report from Indeed surveyed over 2,000 workers and found that AI is a major concern, with over a third of them saying it will negatively impact their job opportunities and career growth. In fact, AI nudged out burnout as the leading concern among job seekers. For 40% of employers, adopting AI is a major focus in 2026but 35% of job seekers see this as a troubling shift. Your employees know AI isnt going away and will impact their work, Matt Berndt, the head of Indeeds Job Search Academy, said in a blog post. The big question is how? This unknown breeds uncertainty, and thats the disconnect: Both employers and workers are using AI, but they dont understand or trust how the other is using it. This isnt a tech problem; its human. Economists have argued there is little evidence that AI is already displacing workers in high numbers, even in sectors that are more vulnerable to its effects. Still, employees across corporate America have reason to fret over AI: In just the last month, several companies have explicitly cited AI in layoff announcements. Pinterest will be laying off 15% of its workforce this year, in an effort to redirect resources to teams that are working on AI. Citigroup already cut 1,000 jobs in January, and CEO Jane Fraser has teased more layoffs later this year due to AI and automation. This report also aligns with the broader sentiment around AI adoption: Public opinion polling has repeatedly shown that Americans fear AI will usher in sweeping job losses. Indeeds report also captures a fundamental disconnect between employers and rank and file workers. The overwhelming majority of employers are convinced they know what their workforce wants, according to Indeedthough their employees largely disagree. Half of employers also seem to think the job market is actually improving, while 40% of workers believe it is only getting worse. Many employers are worried about budgets and cost reduction, while two-thirds of workers are jockeying for a raise. In spite of these findings, one thing employers and their workers might actually agree on is that burnout is loomingperhaps now more than ever. For workers, burnout is a major concern, not far behind AI. Employers claim to be most concerned with employee wellbeing and burnout, while also anticipating that the 996 schedulethe 72-hour work week that is growing more popular across AI companieswill take over more workplaces. Nearly 40% of employers said they expect longer work weeks, per the Indeed report, even as 46% of job seekers cited work life balance as a top priority. As they face increasing pressure from their employers to embrace AI, its little surprise that workers are not exactly optimistic about what 2026 has in store.
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U.S. life expectancy rose to 79 years in 2024 the highest mark in American history.It’s the result of not only the dissipation of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also waning death rates from all the nation’s top killers, including heart disease, cancer and drug overdoses.What’s more, preliminary statistics suggest a continued improvement in 2025.“It’s pretty much good news all the way around,” said Robert Anderson, of the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the 2024 data on Thursday.Life expectancy, a fundamental measure of a population’s health, is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time.For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, just shy of 79 years.It was relatively flat for several years before plunging as the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than 1.2 million Americans. In 2021, life expectancy fell to just under 76 1/2 years. It has been rebounding since.The data reflect not only a complete turnaround from the pandemic but also a lasting improvement in the drug overdose epidemic, said Andrew Stokes, a researcher at Boston University.The bad news is that the U.S. still ranks below dozens of other countries, Stokes noted.“There’s a lot more to be done,” he said.In 2024, about 3.07 million U.S. residents died, about 18,000 fewer than the year before. Death rates declined across all racial and ethnic groups, and in both men and women.Heart disease remained the nation’s leading cause of death, but the death rate due to it dropped by about 3% for the second year in a row. A combination of factors are likely at play, including advances in medical treatments and weight management, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, who treats and studies heart disease at Northwestern University.Deaths from unintentional injuries a category that includes drug overdoses fell the most, dropping more than 14% in 2024. COVID-19, which only a few years ago was the nation’s No. 3 killer, in 2024 dropped out of the top 10.COVID-19’s fall meant suicide moved into the top 10, even though suicides in 2024 declined. Homicides fell that year, too, this week’s report said.Deaths statistics for 2025 are not finalized, but preliminary data suggest around 3.05 million deaths have been recorded. That number may grow as more death certificates are rounded up and analyzed, but Anderson said he expects last year will end up at least a slight improvement over the 2024. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer
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Some blind and low-vision fans will have unprecedented access to the Super Bowl thanks to a tactile device that tracks the ball, vibrates on key plays and provides real-time audio.The NFL teamed up with OneCourt and Ticketmaster to pilot the game-enhancing experience 15 times during the regular-season during games hosted by the Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings.About 10 blind and low-vision fans will have an opportunity to use the same technology at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, where Seattle will play the New England Patriots on Feb. 8. With hands on the device, they will feel the location of the ball and hear what’s happening throughout the game.Scott Thornhill can’t wait.Thornhill, the executive director of the American Council of the Blind, will be among the fans at Levi’s Stadium with a OneCourt tablet in their lap and Westwood One’s broadcast piped into headphones. He was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was 8, and later lost his sight.“It will allow me to engage and enjoy the game as close as possible as people who can see,” Thornhill told The Associated Press. “As someone who grew up playing sports before I lost my vision, I’m getting a big part of my life back that I’ve been missing. To attend a game and not have to wait for someone to tell me what happened, it’s hard to even describe how much that means to me.“It’s a game-changer.”Clark Roberts experienced it first hand.The Seahawks fan was invited by the team to attend its home game against Indianapolis on Dec. 14 to experience the game with the OneCourt device that is the size of a thick iPad with raised lines outlining a football field.“The device does two wonderful things,” said Roberts, who lost his sight when he was 24 due to retinitis pigmentosa. “It vibrates in different ways for different plays and through headphones, I was able to hear Seattle’s amazing announcer, Steve Raible. Real-time audio is the real beauty of the device because usually when I’m listening to a game, there can be a delay of up to a minute or more and that can be challenging to constantly ask family and friends what happened.“Can you imagine how this can open up everything, not just football?”OneCourt is working on it.It has partnered with NBA and Major League Baseball teams to provide its devices at games and is in talks to make them available with the NHL, along with other leagues and sports organizations all over the world.OneCourt launched in 2023 after founder Jerred Mace saw a blind person attending a soccer match while he was a junior at the University of Washington.The startup with headquarters in Seattle uses the NFL’s tracking data from Genius Sports and translates it into feedback for the device to create unique vibrations for plays such as tackles and touchdowns.The data is generated from cameras and chips embedded in balls, jerseys and elsewhere. The same technology is used by the NFL’s NextGen Stats for health and player safety, statistics and gambling.“It’s a testament to the maturity of the product and our company that we have gone from delivering this to a handful of teams throughout the last year or two to having it at the largest event in American sports,” OneCourt co-founder Antyush Bollini said. “The Super Bowl is such an amazing event and now blind and low-vision fans can use our technology in a way they deserve.”Ticketmaster’s funding for the NFL pilot went toward underwriting the device to make it available to fans for free, according to senior client development director Scott Aller.“This is a very, very big social impact win,” Aller said. “We hope that we can make an investment like this in every single one of our markets.”After some teams approached the league about improving access for all, the NFL has spent the past few months piloting the program and ultimately decided to have the device make its Super Bowl debut.“It’s not lost on us that we have blind to low-vision fans and we want to do right by them,” said Belynda Gardner, senior director of diversity equity and inclusion for the NFL.Gardner said the league has been very encouraged by the pilot and potential of this technology.“We’re reviewing what we learned and evaluating how it can be implemented going forward,” Gardner said. “There aren’t any definitive next steps and we will use the offseason to determine where this technology sits in the NFL’s suite of offerings.”Thomas Rice, a Jaguars fans, who is blind, said he had a seamless experience with the OneCourt device at a game in Jacksonville. Rice picked up the tablet at guest services at EverBank Stadium and after settling in at his seat, he felt and heard football in a new way.“When Trevor Lawrence threw a touchdown pass to Brian Thomas Jr., I felt the ball travel through the air,” Rice said. “When Travis Etienne ran the ball, I could feel it happen along the sideline.”“It was like giving me my own pair of eyes.” Follow Larry Lage on X AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Larry Lage, AP Sports Writer
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No longer confined to the partisans and activists, the fierce backlash against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has begun to break out across American culture, spanning the worlds of business, sports and entertainment.Bruce Springsteen released a new song Wednesday that slammed “Trump’s federal thugs.” OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman told employees that “what’s happening with ICE is going too far,” referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And lifestyle icon Martha Stewart lamented that “we can be attacked and even killed.”“Things must and have to change quickly and peacefully,” Stewart wrote to her 2.9 million Instagram followers this week.A little more than one year into his second term, Trump is facing a broad cultural revolt that threatens to undermine his signature domestic priority, the Republican Party’s grip on power and his own political strength ahead of the midterm elections.Trump, a former reality television star often attuned to changes in public opinion, tried to shift the conversation this week by dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to replace Greg Bovino, a Border Patrol commander who has been a lightning rod.But it’s unclear if the move will change anything on the ground.Thousands of federal agents remain in Minnesota, where two U.S. citizens have been killed and communities have felt besieged by Trump’s crackdown. Meanwhile, operations have expanded into Maine as well. White House is ‘spooked’ Republican strategist Doug Heye said it’s too soon to know whether Trump’s attempt to control the fallout will work. He’s been in communication with Republican leaders across Washington in recent days who are worried that the escalating situation could jeopardize control of Congress in this fall’s midterm elections.“It’s very clear that the administration is spooked,” Heye said.And while some in the party may be concerned, Trump’s Make America Great Again base remains largely unified behind him and the immigration crackdown that he promised repeatedly on the campaign trail. They’re pushing the president not to back down.“It’s time for President Trump to ramp up mass deportations even more,” Laura Loomer, a Trump loyalist who has the president’s ear, told The Associated Press. “And if Minnesota is any barometer, it’s time for the focus to be on deporting as many Muslims as possible.”Such advice is at odds with a growing faction of prominent voices across American culture. Who is speaking out? Joe Rogan, a leading podcast host who endorsed Trump during his comeback campaign, said he sympathizes with concerns about immigration agents’ tactics.“Are we really going to be the Gestapo?” Rogan said. “‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”Over the weekend, more than 60 corporate executives, including the leaders of Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth, released a public letter calling for de-escalation following the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs nurse fatally shot during a confrontation with federal agents.The outcry intensified as the week progressed.Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday issued a memo to employees saying he was “heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis.”“I believe America is strongest when we live up to our highest ideals, when we treat everyone with dignity and respect no matter who they are or where they’re from, and when we embrace our shared humanity,” Cook wrote in the memo, first reported by Bloomberg News.Tech billionaire and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla used stronger language on social media to condemn “macho ICE vigilantes running amuck.”Jason Calacanis, a prominent tech podcaster, on Wednesday warned of dire consequences for Trump if he does not make sweeping changes among the people running the immigration crackdown.“President Trump needs to replace them all and reverse his plummeting ratings, or the entire Trump 2.0 agenda is over,” Calacanis wrote to his 1 million X followers. “America needs to put this dark and disgusting chapter behind us and unite behind a crisper immigration policy.” Actors and musicians speak up More outrage came from the entertainment industry, which is often viewed as a liberal bastion.Springsteen dropped his new song, “The Streets of Minneapolis,” on Wednesday. The famed musician referenced Pretti’s death directly.“Trump’s federal thugs beat up on his face and his chest. Then we heard the gunshots. And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead,” Springsteen sings.Other actors and entertainers who spoke out in recent days include Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish. Actor Mark Ruffalo described Pretti’s death as “cold-blooded murder.”The sports world has also begun to engage.Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch called the shootings “unconscionable” and expressed support for protesters. So did superstar NBA player Steph Curry.“There’s a lot of change that needs to happen,” Curry, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, told reporters this week. He said he’s been glued to news coverage of the latest Minnesota shooting.Guerschon Yabusele, of the New York Knicks, went further the day after Pretti’s shooting.“I can’t remain silent. What’s happening is beyond comprehension,” he wrote on X. “We’re talking about murders here, these are serious matters. The situation must change, the government must stop operating in this way. I stand with Minnesota.” Trump may be getting the message Trump appears to be softening his tone on immigration at least by his standards.“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” he said during a Tuesday interview on Fox News. He also chided Bovino, whom he displaced from his role.“Bovino is very good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy,” he said. “In some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”But Trump pushed back on the characterization that he was scaling back his operations in Minnesota. And in a social media post, he warned Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that he was “PLAYING WITH FIRE” by refusing to enforce federal immigration laws.Even before Pretti’s death Saturday, public opinion was starting to turn against Trump on immigration, which was among his strongest issues at the beginning of his second term.Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling immigration, down from 49% in March. That’s according to an AP-NORC poll conducted Jan. 8-11, shortly after the first shooting death of a U.S. citizen in Minnesota.There’s also some indication that Trump’s approval on immigration could be slipping among Republicans. The president’s approval among self-described Republicans fell from 88% in March to 76%in the January AP-NORC poll.A separate Fox News poll, which was conducted Friday through Monday, found that 59% of voters described ICE as “too aggressive,” a 10-point increase since last July. AP writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed. Steve Peoples, AP National Political Writer
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Tesla, a brand once synonymous with consumer electric vehicles, is ditching some of the cars that brought its success. CEO Elon Musk has announced that the Model S and X vehicles are getting an honorable discharge, with production of them ending sometime next quarter. Instead, the company will use some of its factory space to build its humanoid Optimus robots. The news, shared during Teslas quarter-four earnings call on Wednesday, January 28, comes as Tesla expands manufacturing of its Optimus robots, full self-driving vehicles, and robotaxis. In fact, Tesla used its quarterly earnings report to describe itself as a physical AI company. That report holds many of the answers as to why. Teslas total revenue fell 3% year-over-year from $25.7 billion to $24.9 billion, while its automotive revenues fell 11% YOY from $19.8 billion to $17.7 billion. In quarter four, production of Model S and X vehicles dropped by 48% YOY, while deliveries fell 51% YOY. None of this was helped by Elon Musks polarizing political views, on-again, off-again relationship with President Donald Trump, and the termination of $7,500 EV tax credits last fall. Despite all this, Musk used the investors call to make one last push to customers: If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order. The two models made up less than 3% of deliveries over the last quarter, with the remainder being Model 3 and Y vehicles. The latter two models appear to still be available for Tesla customers. Whats next for Tesla? Tesla is all in on AI. Earlier this month, the company invested about $2 billion in xAI, another Musk venture. The pair also created a framework agreement to collaborate on AI that should enhance Teslas ability to develop and deploy AI products and services into the physical world at scale, according to Teslas quarterly report. The company plans to announce the Gen 3 version of Optimus this quarter and says its the first one designed to be mass produced. Tesla aims to start production of the humanoid robot by the end of this year and plans to reach one million robots annually. However, Musk noted that Tesla is still at the early stages when it comes to Optimus. So far, it has only completed some basic factory tasks. Finally, Tesla is continuing to push its full self-driving mode and robotaxisthough most places still require a safety monitor. The pivot doesnt seem to have rattled investors. Shares of Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) rose a bit over 2% in premarket trading on Thursday. The stock is up more than 10% over the last 12 months.
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