 |
|
|
|||||
Many big companies have cited AI as a reason for recent layoffs. But the new technology transforming the workforce may create some new jobs, too. AI startups are racing to hire a certain kind of software engineer who works with both customer teams and product engineering teams: Candidates are expected to have tech skills, but also, understand the business model so they can help customize customers’ AI models for their companies’ specific needs. The emerging role is called a forward-deployed engineer (FDE), and according to the Financial Times, job postings for the position are absolutely skyrocketing, increasing more than 800% from the start of 2025 through September. The origins of the role come from data software company Palantir, which pioneered the job in the early 2010s. Today, the company says FDEs make up about half of their workforce. Nic Prettejohn, head of AI in the U.K. at Palantir, said, per the Financial Times, described the job as “product discovery from the inside.The specific tasks an FDE is responsible for may vary from company to company, but the job certainly seems to encompass a lot.According to Planitir, FDEs responsibilities look similar to those of a startup CTO: youll work in small teams and own end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects.” Likewise, a job ad for an FDE at the financial tech company Ramp says the role includes working with “sales and go-to-market teams to close exciting deals, activate customers, and expand the value Ramp provides over time.While many worry that AI will take their jobs, some say that AI also has the power to create jobs, too, and maybe even, at a greater rate. And as AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and others, recruit FDEs, perhaps both arguments have weight, especially because it’s not just FDE job postings that are rising.According to the 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report, while AI could displace around nine million jobs over the next five years, it could also create 11 million new jobs. Some of the roles could be things like AI trainers, AI auditors, AI translators, and more. Aneesh Raman, LinkedIns chief economic opportunity officer, spoke to the undeniable rise in new AI jobs, telling the New York Times, Head of AI. jobs are up, I think, three times in the last five years, he said. AI engineers are the fastest growing role in the U.S., followed by AI consultants.Other experts agree that new jobs can help to bridge the gap between the ever-growing ways that AI technology is being used, and what human beings still need from other humans, working to integrate the technology into real life. Tech innovator Pramod Pallath Vasudevan articulated the point in a post on social media about the surge in FDE hiring, writing, “AI isnt taking engineers away from the real world. Its bringing them closer to it.” Vasudevan added, “AI isnt replacing us. Its redeploying usto the front lines of progress.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Fortnite maker Epic Games and Google just agreed on a comprehensive settlement that could be the final chapter in Epics long battle over app store rules. In a joint filing in a San Francisco federal court, both companies proposed a resolution to Epics antitrust lawsuit against Google, which the game publisher filed in 2020 along with a parallel lawsuit against Apple. In a post on X, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called the proposed settlement awesome and expressed hope that the courts would agree. It genuinely doubles down on Android’s original vision as an open platform to streamline competing store installs globally, reduce service fees for developers on Google Play, and enable third-party in-app and web payments, Sweeney said. This is a comprehensive solution, which stands in contrast to Apples model of blocking all competing stores and leaving payments as the only vector for competition. In the settlement, Google agrees to cap app store fees at 9% to 20% depending on the transaction. Currently, Google takes a 15% cut of the first $1 million in developer revenue and 30% of anything above that threshold. Beyond lowering fees, Google also said it would allow alternate app stores to be offered officially in the next major Android update. All of the proposed changes would go into effect globally not just in the U.S. and remain in place through 2032. The surprise settlement follows some resounding losses for Google. Late last year, a judge sided with Epic on many of the game publishers demands and ordered Google to open its app marketplace to competing third-party app stores in the U.S. for three years, a decision that stood to completely remake Androids app ecosystem. Prior to the settlement, it looked like Googles last hope was a hail mary asking the Supreme Court to take on the case a long shot given that the court previously shrugged off Epics parallel case against Apple. Epics epic battle In 2020, Epic kicked off a flashy campaign to rally people against mobile softwares gatekeepers by breaking the rules of both Google and Apples app stores intentionally, getting Fortnite kicked off of phones and tablets in the process. In lawsuits against both companies, Epic argued that Google and Apple violated antitrust laws by forcing users to pay for apps and in-app purchases through their app marketplaces while taking a slice of every transaction. While Epics case against Apple is now mostly resolved without too much disruption to Apples business, the iPhone maker did land itself in hot water earlier this year when a federal judge determined that it violated the terms of a court order forcing it to give developers more freedom to accept payments. Epics case against Google took a different path. After years of back-and-forth in court, Epic landed a major win over the summer when a federal appeals court upheld a jury verdict that deemed Google Play, Androids app store, to be a monopoly. In other recent cases, courts determined that Google was operating a monopoly in its digital ads and search engine businesses. Together with Epic Games we have filed a proposed set of changes to Android and Google Play that focus on expanding developer choice and flexibility, lowering fees, and encouraging more competition all while keeping users safe, Android Ecosystem President Sameer Samat wrote on X, adding that the company would discuss the settlement with a judge on Thursday.
Category:
E-Commerce
Elon Musk turned off many potential buyers of his Tesla cars and sent sales plunging with his foray into politics. But the stock has soared anyway and now he wants the company to pay him more a lot more. Shareholders gathering Thursday for Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, will decide in a proxy vote whether to grant Musk, the company’s CEO and already the richest person in the world, enough stock to potentially make him history’s first trillionaire. It’s a vote that has sparked heated debate on both sides of the issue, even drawing the pope’s comments on it as an example of income inequality. Several pension funds have come out against the package, arguing that the board of directors is too beholden to Musk, his behavior too reckless lately, and the riches offered too much. Supporters say Musk is a genius who is the only person capable of ushering in a Tesla-dominated future in which hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars many without steering wheels will ferry people and humanoid Tesla robots will march around factories and homes, picking up boxes and watering plants. The pay is necessary to incentivize him, they say, and keep him focused. Musk has threatened to walk away from the company if he doesn’t get what he wants and has blasted some of the packages critics as corporate terrorists.” What is up for a vote To get his Tesla shares, Musk has to secure approval from a majority of the company’s voting shareholders. Improving the odds, Musk gets to vote his own shares, worth 15% of the company. Shareholders first heard about the pay package in September when the board of directors proposed it in a detailed filing to federal securities regulators. The document, running 200 pages, also contains other proposals up for a vote at the meeting, including whether to allow Tesla to invest in another Musk company, xAI, and who should serve on the board in the future. How Musk can get $1 trillion Musk won’t get necessarily get all of that money, or even a cent of it, if the package is approved. He first has to meet several operational and financial targets. To get the full pay, for instance, he has to deliver to the car market 20 million Teslas over 10 years, more than double the number he has churned out over the past dozen years. He also has to massively increase the market value of the company and its operating profits and deliver one million robots, from zero today. If he falls short of the biggest goals, though, the package could still hand him plenty of money. Musk will get $50 billion in additional Tesla shares, for example, if he increases the company’s market value by 80%, something he did just this past year, as well as doubling vehicle sales and tripling operating earnings or hitting any other two of a dozen operational targets. Musk vs. Rockefeller Musk is already the richest man in the world with a net worth of $493 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and well ahead of some of the wealthiest of years past. The steel giant, Andrew Carnegie, was once worth an inflation-adjusted $300 billion, according to the Carnegie Corp., well below Musk’s wealth. Musk is still trailing John D. Rockefeller, but he’s closing in fast. The railroad titan hit peak inflation-adjusted wealth of $630 billion in 1913, according to Guinness World Records. For his part, Musk says its not really about the money but about getting a higher Tesla stake it will double to nearly 30% so he can control the company. He says that’s a pressing concern given Tesla’s future robot army,” a reference to the company’s Optimus humanoid workers that he doesn’t trust anyone else to control. Split among shareholders Many investors have come out in support of the package, including Baron Capital Management, whose founder called Musk indispensable to the company. Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, wrote founder Ron Baron, there would be no Tesla. Critics include the biggest in the U.S. public pension fund, Calpers, and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest. They argue the pay is excessive, with the Norway fund expressing concern that the board that designed it, which includes Musk’s brother, is not independent enough. That echoes a decision from a Delaware court nearly two years ago that blasted the process for approving a previous Musk pay package as deeply flawed given his extensive ties to directors. Even the Vatican has weighed in, decrying the wealth gap in the world and blasting the trillion dollar offer in particular. If that is the only thing that has value anymore, said Pope Leo XIV, “then were in big trouble. Musk’s record at Tesla is mixed Judging from the stock price alone, Musk has been spectacularly successful. The company is now worth nearly $1.5 trillion. But a lot that runup reflects big bets by investors that Musk will be able deliver things that are difficult to pull off, and the way Musk has run the company recently doesn’t inspire confidence. He has broken numerous promises, and his tendency to say whatever is on his mind has sabotaged the company. Just this year, for instance, he vowed to deliver driverless taxis in several cities, secure regulatory approval in Europe for his self-driving software, and push sales up 20% or 30%. Instead, his driverless robotaxis in Austin and San Francisco have human safety monitors inside. Europeans still haven’t approved his software. And Tesla sales continue to plunge, with new figures out Monday showing a stunning 50% drop last month in Germany alone. That said, Musk has pulled off the impossible before. His company, a half dozen years ago, was widely feared to be near bankruptcy because he wasn’t making enough cars, but then he succeeded, and the stock soared. He frequently teeters on the edge of disaster,” said Tesla owner and money manager Nancy Tengler, “and then pulls back just in the nick of time. Bernard Condon, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||