Anthropic, Block Layoffs, AI Agents, Gucci, and Happiness
Your Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
📊 AI in Healthcare
💸 Anthropic
⬛ Block
🤖 AI Investment
👾 Agents
👩💼 AI Adoption
👜 Gucci
😃 Happiness
Podcast
Harnessing AI in Healthcare: Insights from RJ Kedziora
In this episode of Product by Design, Kyle Evans interviews RJ Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda, a company specializing in custom software and data analysis for healthcare. We discuss RJ’s journey in technology and entrepreneurship, the importance of energy management over time management, and the role of AI in healthcare. RJ shares insights into the challenges and future of AI applications, the need for ethical considerations, and the potential for personalized healthcare solutions. He also offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a difference in the industry.
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News and Useful Reads
Anthropic boss rejects Pentagon demand to drop AI safeguards
Anthropic didn’t back down this week in the face of enormous pressure from the US government. It’s both uplifting and disheartening. At least there is one company in the US that will stand up for its ethics right now. But so few companies are standing up to the current US regime that it makes news when they do.
Anthropic has said it will not back down in a fight with the US Department of Defense (DoD) over how its artificial intelligence (AI) technology is used.
The firm’s chief executive Dario Amodei said on Thursday that his company would rather not work with the Pentagon than agree to uses of its tech that may “undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.”
Jack Dorsey to cut 4,000 jobs due to AI advances at Square parent Block
Block is cutting around 40% of its workforce because of current (or hoped for) productivity gains with AI. Shareholders were all in.
“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey, Block’s CEO, said in a letter to shareholders on Thursday. “We’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week.” Block is the parent company for online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App.
Big Tech to invest about $650 billion in AI in 2026, Bridgewater says
The investment in AI does not seem to be slowing down yet, with major tech firms on track to spend much more this year than in 2025.
U.S. technology giants Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab are expected to collectively invest about $650 billion to scale up AI-related infrastructure this year, according to an analysis by Bridgewater Associates.
Your users aren’t human anymore; start building for agents today
While I agree that agents will play a greater part in product experiences and our online interactions, we’re not there yet. And I’d even venture to say we’re a long way from being done with human user experiences, despite the current hype. But an important idea to keep in mind for product work we’re doing.
In the new paradigm of work, humans will interact with their AI agents, and those agents will, in turn, interact with our software on our behalf. The heartbeat of a healthy SaaS company is no longer a human login; it’s a programmatic action.
To Drive AI Adoption, Build Your Team’s Product Management Skills
To unlock the real value of generative AI at work, employees need an unexpected set of skills: those of a product manager. Defining high-value problems, finding the right digital tools to solve them, experimenting with those tools, and integrating solutions into workflows are key activities of a product manager, and they’re critical to developing improvements to employees’ workflows.
Gucci criticised for ‘AI slop’ images ahead of major fashion show
Gucci is facing backlash, and rightly so, for using AI images. Why a fashion brand would want to rely on AI is baffling to me personally.
The images have been posted on social media - where users have questioned how using AI instead of human models and photographers is in keeping with the fashion house's claim that it celebrates "creativity and Italian craftsmanship."
Other Interesting Finds
Happiness Map
If you’re looking for some really cool data visualization, this map is a treat. It shows different examples of happiness, ranging from short-term to long-term and high-agency to low-agency. Along with links to research on happiness.