Is AI Really Taking Jobs? Or Are Employers Just ‘AI-Washing’ Normal Layoffs?

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The New York Times lists other reasons a company lays off people. (“It didn’t meet financial targets. It overhired. Tariffs, or the loss of a big client, rocked it…”)

“But lately, many companies are highlighting a new factor: artificial intelligence. Executives, saying they anticipate huge changes from the technology, are making cuts now.”

A.I. was cited in the announcements of more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a research firm… Investors may applaud such pre-emptive moves. But some skeptics (including media outlets) suggest that corporations are disingenuously blaming A.I. for layoffs, or “A.I.-washing.” As the market research firm Forrester put it in a January report: “Many companies announcing A.I.-related layoffs do not have mature, vetted A.I. applications ready to fill those roles, highlighting a trend of ‘A.I.-washing’ — attributing financially motivated cuts to future A.I. implementation….”

“Companies are saying that ‘we’re anticipating that we’re going to introduce A.I. that will take over these jobs.’ But it hasn’t happened yet. So that’s one reason to be skeptical,” said Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School… Of course, A.I. may well end up transforming the job market, in tech and beyond. But a recent study… [by a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies A.I. and work] found that AI has not yet meaningfully shifted the overall market. Tech firms have cut more than 700,000 employees globally since 2022, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks industry job losses. But much of that was a correction for overhiring during the pandemic.

As unpopular as A.I. job cuts may be to the public, they may be less controversial than other reasons — like bad company planning.

Amazon CEO Jassy has even said the reason for most of their layoffs was reducing bureaucracy, the article points out, although “Most analysts, however, believe Amazon is cutting jobs to clear money for A.I. investments, such as data centers.”


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This 32in-wheel gravel bike could solve frame problems for tall riders – and I think it’s stunning 

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Cross-country mountain biking is buzzing with chatter around the arrival of 32in wheels and we’ve heard plenty of rumours about brands considering this largest wheel size for gravel. Now, Australian titanium and steel expert Baum has unveiled the new DBM 32.

The benefits of 32in wheels are said to be improved stability, grip and roll over rougher surfaces. What Baum sees, however, is a solution to the problem of building custom bikes for very tall riders.

“A 32-inch wheel makes a lot of sense for tall and very tall riders,” says Darren Baum, “but a 32er is not going to work for everyone because of the extra standover and reach. A bigger wheel size allows us to build a bigger frame with better proportions, which is something that has really been missing from the market.”

Six months of testing

Baum DBM 32
Huge tyre clearances and an ENVE carbon gravel cockpit. Baum

Baum has been test riding the bike for more than six months and is now confident enough to offer the larger wheel size to its customers.

Until now, it has been reluctant to offer the option because there was limited availability of 32in-specific parts: rims, forks, spokes and especially tyres.

However, with the commitment of major players such as Schwalbe, we’re seeing this burgeoning standard expanding enough for Baum to put the DBM 32 into production.

Baum DBM 32
Baum’s 32in-wheel gravel bike is now available to order. Baum

Baum explains that his decision to add the DBM 32 to the brand’s roster isn’t based on the ‘trend’ – it’s down to his experience of riding his own 32in prototype.

He also invited other riders to try the bike and provide feedback.

“Perhaps the most surprising thing has been how quickly everybody has been able to adapt to the bigger wheels,” Baum says. “They roll really well, offer lots of grip, and they are very stable, which is exactly what we were all saying when we started using 29-inch wheels.

“32-inch wheels aren’t going to replace 29-inch wheels, but they will allow me to make a better bike for tall riders.”

First DBM 32 details

Baum DBM 32
ENVE’s full-carbon mountain fork provides huge clearances for the DBM 32. Baum

The first production bike, the DBM (Drop Bar Mountain) 32, was built for one of Darren’s customers – a seasoned cyclist who is 6ft 7in (200cm) tall, with a saddle height of 91cm, and has always struggled to get a proportionally correct bike.

The frame is made from seamless 3AL/2.5v titanium tubing, matched to a head tube made from a billet of 6AL/4V titanium. All of the components come via ENVE, including its 32in-compatible rigid carbon mountain fork.

baum dbm 32
The DBM 32 is made from custom-butted titanium. Baum

The frame’s 2.6in clearances have been retained from the (standard) DBM gravel design. That gives enough clearance for the 32in Maxxis Aspen tyres. To get this level of clearance, the seat tube is custom-curved, combined with a 3D-printed chainstay yoke, and by using a wide 89.5mm T47 bottom bracket shell.

Baum DBM 32 Enve cockpit
The ENVE two-piece carbon cockpit is painted to match the frame. Baum

The bike is finished with a SRAM XX SL groupset, matched with RED AXS levers, RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post, and ENVE bar and stem. The 32in wheels are custom-built for Baum and everything is finished in a Matt Camo custom paintjob.

Pricing is in line with the current DBM gravel bike, with frame-kit prices starting at around AU$13,450 (circa £6,850 / $9,500) and complete bikes from AU$16,192 (circa £8,300 / $11,400).

The DBM 32 is finished in full custom paint. Baum

TikTok says it’s ‘back to normal’ after winter storm-related outages

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TikTok is finally “back to normal” in the US after days of technical issues and outages tied to winter storms. Less than a week after companies like Oracle took ownership of TikTok’s domestic operations, the platform faced a major power outage when one of its primary US data center sites — run by Oracle — got taken down by the storm. 

The problems started last Monday, January 26, when TikTok announced it was working on a “major infrastructure issue” and warned of bugs, time-out requests, missing earnings, and more. The next day TikTok shared that progress has been made but there were still some issues. It added, “Creators may temporarily see ‘0’ views or likes on videos, and your earnings may look like they’re missing. This is a display error caused by server timeouts; your actual data and engagement are safe.”

Then, yesterday, February 1, TikTok claimed the problem was straightened out and that users shouldn’t experience any more related issues. “We’re sorry about the issues experienced by our U.S. community. We appreciate how much you count on TikTok to create, discover, and connect with what matters to you,” the platform stated in its update. “Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

A number of US users have uninstalled TikTok in response to its new ownership and technical issues. Some users also claimed that TikTok was censoring what they could post or what others saw. For instance, The Guardian reports that many people faced issues sharing videos about ICE agents killing Alex Pretti and general anti-ICE content. 

On January 26, analytics firm Sensor Tower told CNBC that uninstalls of the app had increased by over 150 percent during the five days since its change in ownership, when compared to the three months before. At the same time, independent app and competitor UpScrolled saw a surge in downloads. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/tiktok-says-its-back-to-normal-after-winter-storm-related-outages-114848212.html?src=rss

Orbea recalls Avant road bike models due to fork that could “crack and break”

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Orbea has recalled its Avant road bike, with H40, H50 and H45XI models from 2025 and 2026 said to be affected.

According to the European Commission’s Safety Gate, the EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products, the issue with the bike concerns the fork, which could “crack and break”, leading to injuries.

The bike’s fork is made of carbon fibre, while the rest of the frame is aluminium.

The affected models are from MY2025 and MY2026, with the UK’s Office for Product Safety and Standards sharing the following affected barcodes:

  • 1180648651
  • 1180648283
  • 1180649158
  • 1180649183
  • 1180648321
  • 1180665896
  • 1180648014
  • 1180665909
  • 1180666774
  • 1180666557
  • 1180660308
  • 1180666556
  • 1180661779
  • 1180662819
  • 1180664749
  • 1180662428
  • 1180650249
  • 1180650453
  • 1180661725
  • 1180650056
  • 1180653290
  • 1180650924
  • 1180673668
  • 1180678781

You can check whether your bike is affected by visiting Orbea’s recall page.

You will need to input the bike’s identification number, found under the barcode on the bottom bracket.

This will let you know whether your fork is in the batch being recalled, and what to do if it is.

Linux Kernel Developer Chris Mason’s New Initiative: AI Prompts for Code Reviews

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Phoronix reports:

Chris Mason, the longtime Linux kernel developer most known for being the creator of Btrfs, has been working on a Git repository with AI review prompts he has been working on for LLM-assisted code review of Linux kernel patches. This initiative has been happening for some weeks now while the latest work was posted today for comments… The Meta engineer has been investing a lot of effort into making this AI/LLM-assisted code review accurate and useful to upstream Linux kernel stakeholders. It’s already shown positive results and with the current pace it looks like it could play a helpful part in Linux kernel code review moving forward.

“I’m hoping to get some feedback on changes I pushed today that break the review up into individual tasks…” Mason wrote on the Linux kernel mailing list. “Using tasks allows us to break up large diffs into smaller chunks, and review each chunk individually. This ends up using fewer tokens a lot of the time, because we’re not sending context back and forth for the entire diff with every turn. It also catches more bugs all around.”


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Orange adds new mullet version to P7 steel hardtails range

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Orange Bikes has updated its long-standing P7 steel hardtail range and added a new mullet-wheeled version.

The P7 MX is made from hand-welded Reynolds 525 tubing, features a revised seatstay bridge and is designed around mixed wheel sizes (29in front, 650b rear) and a 140mm-travel fork. 

UDH dropouts provide compatibility with SRAM’s latest Transmission drivetrains, and you get an accessory mount under the top tube (not found on the other P7 models). Gear cables and brake hoses are externally routed for easier maintenance, while ISCG-05 tabs enable easy chain-guide attachment.

Geometry includes a 64.5-degree head angle, 75.5-degree seat tube angle, 480mm reach (large) and 430mm chainstays. The frame is available in a fetching ‘fizzy orange’ or stealthy ‘charcoal grey’.

Orange has updated the geometry of the P7 29 to bring it in line with the P7 MX, giving it a slacker head angle, steeper seat tube angle and longer reach. It has also added 10mm to the head tube length to increase the stack height. It comes in ‘wasabi green’ or ‘angel delight’.

The P7 still rolls on 650b (27.5in) wheels and runs a 150mm fork. Geometry has been aligned with the rest of the range, and it comes in ‘cyan blue’ only. Interestingly, neither the P7 nor the P7 29 have been given UDH dropouts.

Orange P7 key spec details

All frames are made from custom-butted Reynolds 525 chromoly steel. Andy Lloyd / Our Media
  • Frame (all): Custom-butted Reynolds 525 chromoly steel, S-XL (P7, P7 MX)/M-XL (P7 29)
  • Travel: 140mm (P7 MX, P7 29) or 150mm (P7) fork
  • Wheels: 650b (P7), 29in (P7 29) or 29in/650b (P7 MX)
  • Geometry (large): 64.5 head angle, 75.5 seat tube angle, 480mm reach, 430mm (P7, P7  MX)/445mm (P7 29) chainstays
  • Pricing (all): £650 (frame only)

DietPi January 2026 Update Introduces Uptime Kuma, ownCloud Infinite Scale, and Debian 12 Baseline

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The January 25, 2026 release of DietPi v10.0 introduces new self-hosted services, drops legacy platform support, and raises the minimum supported Debian version to Bookworm. The update adds Uptime Kuma and ownCloud Infinite Scale to the DietPi software catalog, with a focus on long-term maintainability and SBC compatibility.   DietPi: DietPi is a lightweight, Debian-based […]

Is the TV Industry Finally Conceding That the Future May Not Be 8K?

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“Technology companies spent part of the 2010s trying to convince us that we would want an 8K display one day…” writes Ars Technica.

“However, 8K never proved its necessity or practicality.”

LG Display is no longer making 8K LCD or OLED panels, FlatpanelsHD reported today… LG Electronics was the first and only company to sell 8K OLED TVs, starting with the 88-inch Z9 in 2019. In 2022, it lowered the price-of-entry for an 8K OLED TV by $7,000 by charging $13,000 for a 76.7-inch TV. FlatpanelsHD cited anonymous sources who said that LG Electronics would no longer restock the 2024 QNED99T, which is the last LCD 8K TV that it released.

LG’s 8K abandonment follows other brands distancing themselves from 8K. TCL, which released its last 8K TV in 2021, said in 2023 that it wasn’t making more 8K TVs due to low demand. Sony discontinued its last 8K TVs in April and is unlikely to return to the market, as it plans to sell the majority ownership of its Bravia TVs to TCL.

The tech industry tried to convince people that the 8K living room was coming soon. But since the 2010s, people have mostly adopted 4K. In September 2024, research firm Omdia reported that there were “nearly 1 billion 4K TVs currently in use.” In comparison, 1.6 million 8K TVs had been sold since 2015, Paul Gray, Omdia’s TV and video technology analyst, said, noting that 8K TV sales peaked in 2022. That helps explain why membership at the 8K Association, launched by stakeholders Samsung, TCL, Hisense, and panel maker AU Optronics in 2019, is dwindling. As of this writing, the group’s membership page lists 16 companies, including just two TV manufacturers (Samsung and Panasonic). Membership no longer includes any major TV panel suppliers. At the end of 2022, the 8K Association had 33 members, per an archived version of the nonprofit’s online membership page via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

“It wasn’t hard to predict that 8K TVs wouldn’t take off,” the article concludes. “In addition to being too expensive for many households, there’s been virtually zero native 8K content available to make investing in an 8K display worthwhile…”


Read more of this story at Slashdot.