That “support” reaction on LinkedIn is about to get its money’s worth. Amazon announced 14,000 corporate job cuts yesterday, with a total of 30,000 layoffs (~10% of its white-collar workforce) expected in the near future. UPS also said yesterday during its Q3 earnings call that it cut 48,000 positions this year already, with 14,000 of those coming from management roles.

The huge headcount reductions follow a startling trend of mass layoffs in corporate offices around the US in recent weeks, including:

• Ed tech company Chegg said it’s laying off 45% of its workforce, or 388 employees. Chegg blamed weak search traffic, which it in turn blamed on AI.
• Paramount said it would lay off 1,000 employees starting today, with more expected following the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media in August.
• Target started its biggest round of layoffs in 10 years yesterday, which will cut 1,000 workers and 800 open positions—equivalent to 8% of the retailer’s workforce.
• PwC cut its headcount by 5,600 in the last year leading up to June 30. The accounting firm originally promised in 2021 to increase hiring by adding 100,000 employees by mid-2026.

Reasons companies are giving for slashing headcount include cutting costs, making workflows more nimble, or, in Amazon’s case, reducing bureaucracy. But some of the biggest cuts hint at executives hoping to free up funds for future AI spending.

Some are being very open about it. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wants to turn the company into a lean, AI-equipped machine that operates like the “world’s largest startup.” In July, Amazon reported that most of its $31.4 billion in Q2 capital expenditures were going to AI and cloud-computing investments, and that the trend would likely continue in future quarters.

Big picture: Despite all these layoffs, the private sector still added 14,250 jobs per week over the last month, according to early data from ADP.—MM

Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica as a Category 5. The historic storm barreled into Jamaica on Wednesday morning with wind speeds of 185 mph, making it the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the country. It flooded roads and bridges and led to widespread internet outages, among other damage to infrastructure. Officials said that many Jamaicans ignored evacuation orders, with less than half of the country’s 800 shelters occupied as of yesterday, the New York Times reported. Because of power outages and other issues caused by the storm, it may be difficult to immediately know the extent of the damage and loss of life. A UN agency described it as “the storm of the century.” It fell to a Category 3 storm before restrengthening to a Category 4 as it approached Cuba. The country planned to evacuate 500,000 people to safety as it prepared for an overnight landfall.

Gaza ceasefire breaks down as Netanyahu orders strikes on Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to conduct “powerful strikes” against Hamas in Gaza yesterday after an official accused Hamas of attacking Israeli soldiers. Hamas responded to the strikes by saying it would delay returning the body of a hostage. The Associated Press also reported that tank fire and explosions could be heard in various parts of Gaza. The developments put the US-brokered ceasefire in doubt a little more than two weeks since it began. The slow return of hostages’ bodies has prevented the ceasefire from moving on to addressing issues like Gaza’s future governance, the AP reported.

Apple joined the $4 trillion club. For a brief moment yesterday, Apple was not valued at a measly $3.99t, but rather an illustrious $4t. The tech giant crossed $4 trillion in market capitalization (before retreating a tad) thanks to better-than-expected iPhone 17 sales in the US and China. Apple becomes the third public company to reach the $4t mark, following Nvidia and Microsoft. Apple’s stock had lagged behind many of its Magnificent Seven peers this year as the company was relatively slow to push into AI, but it’s jumped by 25% over the past three months amid optimism around the new iPhone lineup.—AE

Bill Gates, who wrote a book titled How To Avoid a Climate Disaster, released a memo asking people to tone down the doomsday rhetoric around climate change yesterday, hours before a Category 5 hurricane—supercharged by climate change—unleashed its fury on Jamaica.

One of the loudest voices on the topic shifted his ideology ahead of next month’s United Nations climate summit:

• Gates wants the world to focus less on (but not ignore) near-term problems like rising temperatures and the increasing number of extreme weather events, and more on humanitarian efforts in developing parts of the world.
• The billionaire is asking those attending the summit to consider investing in climate adaptation, meaning “the areas where finance can do the most to fight poverty and boost health.”

Why not both? Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, didn’t mince words to the Associated Press. “There is no reason to pit poverty reduction versus climate transformation,” he argued. “Both are utterly feasible.”

Shifting funds: Gates has redirected charitable funds to poverty-stricken nations in need of assistance after President Trump slashed foreign aid budgets and shut down USAID in July.

Tech support: Microsoft, which Gates co-founded, as well as Meta and Google, have pledged to become carbon neutral or negative by 2030.—DL

The online encyclopedia taking you down a hyperlink journey from “Bill Belichick” to “the Defenestration of Prague” now has an AI-generated rival. This week, Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, launched the beta version of Grokipedia to challenge Wikipedia.

The new site reflects the political views of Musk, who, along with other conservatives, as well as one of Wikipedia’s co-founders, has accused the free encyclopedia of left-wing bias.

Grok vs. Wiki

Unlike Wikipedia’s 7+ million English-language articles written and edited by human volunteers, Grokipedia’s almost 900,000 entries are fact-checked by Grok, xAI’s chatbot.

Users have noticed discrepancies in how the two sites address polarizing topics. For instance:

• The Wikipedia article for the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack describes it as an “attempted self-coup” and an attack by “a mob” to prevent the formalizing of then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
• Meanwhile, Grokipedia says it was a “riot” protesting the certification of election results “amid widespread claims of voting irregularities” and cites sources claiming that it doesn’t qualify as an insurrection.

But Grokipedia acknowledges drawing content from Wikipedia, with some of its articles, like the one for PlayStation 5, being a near carbon copy of the original.

Even before Grokipedia…Wikipedia’s human traffic in recent months dropped 8% from last year. Wikipedia attributes the dip in human visitors to people relying on AI search summaries instead.—SK

For the first time, OpenAI released data on the number of ChatGPT users showing signs of severe mental health crises. Out of 800 million weekly active users:

• 0.07% exhibit signs of mania or psychosis
• 0.15% have conversations that include “explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent”
• 0.15% show “heightened levels” of emotional attachment to the chatbot

The percentages amount to hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users who appear to be having mental health emergencies each week.

OpenAI’s report comes as the company faces increased scrutiny over its handling of mental health, including a high-profile lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT-maker of contributing to a teenager’s suicide. The company has updated the chatbot to improve user safety, but experts remain concerned about “AI psychosis,” or users developing paranoia or delusions while using chatbots.—AE