Some words are younger than they sound. "Smoke and mirrors" is from 1975. "Perfect storm" only entered common use after a 1997 book. "Hashtag" is from 2007.

And "hello" dates to 1834, coined specifically for the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell actually wanted people to answer with "ahoy." We chose wrong and have been living with it ever since.

I’m answering with Ahoy starting today.

What’s in store:

Read Time: 5 minutes

AI JOBS

CEOs are changing the AI layoff script

CEOs used to talk openly about how many jobs AI could replace.

Now, with fears about work and the economy rising, companies are choosing their words much more carefully.

The tension is simple: investors want proof AI is saving money, while employees do not want to hear that those savings come from cutting staff.

That shift is already visible. Klarna previously said its AI assistant was doing the work of 700 employees.

Salesforce linked AI to a smaller support team, while Coinbase cut around 700 jobs as it moved towards smaller, AI-focused teams.

Public concern is also growing. Recent US surveys found most adults expect AI to reduce economic opportunities, while younger people are especially worried about future job losses.

AI was also the most commonly cited reason for US job cuts in July for the fifth month in a row. Nearly 113,000 announced cuts this year have been linked to AI.

Now, companies are trying to separate AI changing work from AI replacing workers.

For companies, the key lessons are:

Corporate America finds the mute button

Etsy, Patreon and Microsoft have all recently said job cuts were not directly caused by AI, while still acknowledging that the technology is changing roles and skills.

AI has not changed the basics of communicating layoffs, but it has made the wording much more sensitive.

CEOs doing CEO things - MV

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AI AGENTS

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Most people treat AI like an intern with a checklist. Run a prompt, get a result, repeat next week. That's not an employee — that's babysitting.

This workflow changes the frame. Build one AI agent that knows your business, hunts lapsed customers, and runs personalized re-engagement without you touching a thing.

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Number Crunch

A square has sides of 8cm. A second square has sides of 12cm. What's the ratio of their areas?

Find the answer at the bottom of the email!

Watch This

Competitive birdwatching is a thing, and these brothers went all in. They spend a year living out of a used minivan and travelling across the country for a “Big Year”, chasing as many bird species as possible and discovering just how intense the hobby can get.

AI BIOTECH

From lab bench to bathroom shelf

Lady Gaga’s partner, Michael Polansky, is also the CEO of Outer Biosciences, a startup using AI and living human skin to speed up biological research.

The company can keep donated skin tissue alive for up to a month, much longer than the usual few days.

That gives researchers more time to study things like inflammation, pigmentation, collagen changes and skin repair.

AI helps choose what to test. It predicts which chemicals could have an effect on the skin, researchers test them on the tissue, then feed the results back into the system so it can improve.

Outer Biosciences says this has helped it go from finding a few promising compounds over 18 months to finding roughly one every six weeks.

In brief:

Coming soon to a serum near you

For now, the company is focused on cosmetic ingredients.

It plans to sell or license promising discoveries to beauty and pharma companies rather than launch its own skincare brand.

Outer Biosciences has raised around $23 million and employs 19 people. Its bigger goal is to make discovering new skin treatments and ingredients much faster.

I know this is super serious and super cool but I can’t help but wonder if they call him LORD GAGA at the workplace. Ignore me plz. - MG

Mindstream Picks

Health: Complaints about NHS autism and ADHD services in England have more than tripled in five years, amid lengthy waits, inconsistent care and patients paying thousands for private treatment.

Gaming: A new leak suggests Resident Evil Requiem could return to the iconic Spencer Mansion in upcoming DLC, revisiting the setting that started the franchise.

Movies: Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars has debuted to poor reviews, earning just 38% on Rotten Tomatoes despite its star-studded cast.

Don’t Miss: Ring is rolling out a new encryption system called TAKE that limits how long Amazon can access the keys needed to process customers’ camera footage while preserving cloud-based AI features. The system is not full end-to-end encryption, but Ring says it will significantly restrict its ability to access or hand over videos.

AI Art

Image of the Day

Daily Image Prompt

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Yesterday’s Poll

“Should AI companies face tougher rules for autonomous agents?”

Yes, the stakes are getting higher - 90% ✅

No, existing rules can handle it - 10%

Your Views:

“I believe a lie that they have in place are working perfectly fine and doing what they were designed to do” - projectr

“Well - yes and no. Your Agent, your responsibility. If AI takes off on it's own - then the creator is at fault. The person or company that put the agent into play should be responsible. ” - jcwea

“Everything AI needs new strict the laws.” - grivera3

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