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AI’s Rapid Spread Triggers Tech Layoffs, Voter-Influence Findings, and New Training Moves

Mounting evidence of disruption is triggering a pivot to training, election safeguards, worker protections.

Overview

  • HP plans to cut about 10% of its workforce citing automation, joining Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, Klarna and Just Eat as hiring slows for junior coders while demand tilts to experienced staff who can supervise AI.
  • Two peer‑reviewed studies in Nature and Science found that real‑time conversations with reasoning chatbots shifted voter preferences in live campaigns across several countries, spurring EU work on a ‘democratic shield’.
  • A VRAIN-UPV analysis estimates 18–22% of jobs in Spain are exposed to AI-driven change, with higher exposure in Madrid and Barcelona and a greater impact on women due to sectoral concentration.
  • Argentina’s National University of Rosario will add a first‑year seminar on AI tools for study to teach critical, responsible use, reflecting broader reskilling needs highlighted by World Bank and ILO estimates of large job transformation.
  • A UNAM neuroscientist cautioned that intensive, unsupervised reliance on tools like ChatGPT may dampen brain activity and erode critical thinking, warning of potential ‘disuse’ atrophy in cognitive skills.