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⚙️ Microsoft cuts 15,000, tells survivors use AI
The Deep View
July 10, 2025
Welcome back. McDonald's AI hiring chatbot "Olivia" exposed 64 million job applicants' personal data to hackers who cracked the system using the password "123456", with no multi-factor authentication required. Security researchers discovered they could access every chat log, name, email, and phone number of people applying for McDonald's jobs by simply trying common login credentials on the Paradox.ai platform. Apparently, the company that subjects job seekers to AI personality tests thinks their own cybersecurity can be personality-test-optional.
In today’s newsletter:
🎒 AI for Good: Microsoft and OpenAI invest in AI training for America’s teachers
🤖 Hugging Face’s Reachy Mini has arrived
⚔️ The AI browser wars are officially here
🧠 Microsoft layoffs spark push for employees to invest in AI skilling
🎒 AI for Good: Microsoft and OpenAI invest in AI training for America’s teachers
Source: Midjourney v7
America's teachers are done waiting for tech companies to figure out education. The American Federation of Teachers is launching a $23 million training center to teach educators how to use AI on their own terms.
The National Academy for AI Instruction, backed by Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, is set to open this fall in Manhattan with the goal of training 400,000 educators over the next five years.
What teachers will actually do:
Learn hands-on AI skills for lesson planning and grading
Test classroom tools and provide direct feedback to developers
Evaluate AI products for safety, ethics and student impact
Train other educators in their districts on responsible AI use
Union President Randi Weingarten says the approach was inspired by trade unions that have built training centers in collaboration with industry partners. "AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges — and it's our job as educators to make sure AI serves our students," she told members.
Why this matters: Educators are getting training and a direct voice in shaping AI development. The timing is critical. AI tools are flooding schools, but widespread ChatGPT cheating and professors' concerns about campus chaos highlight the challenges ahead.
Early pilots show promise. This spring, 200 teachers tested Microsoft curriculum ideas.
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🤖 Hugging Face’s Reachy Mini has arrived
Source: HuggingFace
Following up on a story we covered in May, Hugging Face has released Reachy Mini, a desktop-sized, open-source robot designed to democratize AI development. Now you can actually buy one — and we did.
The open-source robot is available in two versions: a $299 Lite model that requires an external computer, and the $449 Wireless version, which we ordered, runs on a Raspberry Pi 5 with a battery and Wi-Fi. Both are about the size of a stuffed animal, with screen eyes, antenna-like ears, and full movement.
What you get for your money:
Direct access to Hugging Face's 1.7 million AI models via Python programming
Completely open-source design — customize everything
Community of 10 million users sharing robot apps and code
Simulation tools to test ideas before your robot arrives
The real appeal isn't the hardware specs... It's that anyone can now experiment with AI robotics without needing a research lab or corporate budget. Train it to answer questions, perform tasks, or just see what happens when you give a stuffed robot access to ChatGPT.
When we placed our order, Hugging Face sent this timeline: "📦Our team will contact you as soon as your shipping is being prepared (delivery late summer for Reachy-mini and late 2025-early 2026 for the onboard compute version)."
CEO Clément Delangue told TechCrunch his goal is simple: "I would much rather live in a world where everyone can have some control over the robots."
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Elon Musk’s Grok 4 is live
AI chip startup Groq discusses $6 billion valuation
OpenAI is reportedly launching an AI browser soon
Denmark is fighting AI by giving citizens copyright to their own faces
Nvidia becomes first company to hit $4 trillion market cap
AI promising to solve all diseases prepares first human trials
New AI predicts human behavior with high accuracy, researchers say
YouTube plans crackdown on mass-produced and repetitive AI videos
Musk makes grand promises about Grok 4 in the wake of a Nazi chatbot meltdown
⚔️ The AI browser wars are officially here
Source: Perplexity
Wednesday marked a turning point for how we'll use the internet. Perplexity launched Comet, an AI-powered browser that functions like a second brain, tracking what you read and providing real-time answers. Instead of opening 14 tabs, you have an active conversation with the web.
The same day, OpenAI reportedly plans to release its own AI browser "in the coming weeks" to challenge Google Chrome. The browser will keep some interactions inside ChatGPT instead of linking out to websites, potentially integrating OpenAI's Operator web-browsing agent.
This timing isn't coincidental. Back in May, The Browser Company stopped developing its beloved Arc browser, admitting it was "too different" for mainstream adoption. They pivoted to Dia, an AI-first browser currently in beta.
What's driving this shift: Google's Chrome dominance suddenly looks vulnerable because these aren't traditional browsers with AI features bolted on. They're rethinking the basic premise of how we access information.
Chrome assumes you know what website to visit. AI browsers assume you know what question to ask. That's the difference between navigating to weather.com versus asking, "Should I bring an umbrella today?" The latter feels more natural and requires no prior knowledge of where weather information lives online.
The winners will control how billions access information daily. After years of stagnation, browsers are suddenly heating up.
🧠 Microsoft layoffs spark push for employees to invest in AI skilling
Source: Midjourney v7
Days after Microsoft announced its largest annual layoffs in company history, sales executives told remaining employees to lean more heavily on AI tools. "This is a great opportunity to invest in your own AI skilling," Travis Walter, an executive overseeing Microsoft's sales to small and medium enterprises in the Americas, told staff Monday, according to The Information.
The timing is brutal. Microsoft just reported saving $500 million in call center operations through AI automation, while cutting 9,000 workers in its second major layoff this year. The total number of cuts reaches 15,000 employees, even as the company posts $24.67 billion profit in Q1.
Walter described his division's recent performance as "Olympic" while telling survivors to use AI tools for customer summaries and automated sales pitches. Microsoft is spending $80 billion this year on AI infrastructure, and that investment now comes with human costs.
Previously, customers complained about dealing with too many Microsoft representatives pushing different products. Now, Microsoft is streamlining:
Collapsing six "solution areas" into three: business solutions, Azure cloud and cybersecurity
Eliminating "technical specialist" roles for "solution engineers" who deploy AI implementations
Tracking employee AI usage through internal dashboards
Running contests with $50 gift cards for creative AI applications
While AI usage isn't formally required in performance reviews, managers are praising employees who embrace the technology. The push is company-wide. Some executives track the percentage of code their teams generate using AI.
This pattern extends beyond Microsoft. Google laid off hundreds of employees while offering buyouts to those in search. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently warned that the company will replace workers with AI.
Microsoft is creating a workplace where employees must embrace the technology that's eliminating their colleagues' jobs. Workers receive performance praise for using AI tools while AI automation drives layoffs.
Individual employees have little choice but to adapt. Refusing to use AI tools would hurt their careers, yet widespread adoption accelerates the need for fewer humans overall. Microsoft isn't unique here; this pattern is spreading across the tech industry as companies discover that AI can maintain productivity with smaller workforces.
The question isn't whether this trend will continue, but how quickly other industries will follow suit.
Which image is real? |
🤔 Your thought process:
Selected Image 1 (Left):
“That [other] image is perfect stacked in front of perfect in front of perfect with a side of perfect. The first has 50 shadows going the same way across complex shapes, AI generation isn't there yet.”
“The absolute uniformity of [the other image] contrasts clearly with the ‘messy’ reality depicted in [this real image].
Selected Image 2 (Right):
“Shoot. I was looking at the shadows on the [other image] that were pointing in different directions.”
“I was wrong! The darkness in the top photo seemed out of space, so I chose the more perfect-looking one. The more perfect the picture, the more likely it is that it is AI. I should have known.”
💭 A poll before you go
Microsoft cuts 15,000 jobs, then tells staff to skill up on AI. What’s your take? |
The Deep View is written by Faris Kojok, Chris Bibey and The Deep View crew. Please reply with any feedback.
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