Did the fintech company block just lay off 40% of its workforce due to AI automation?

Can the best AI models pass a freshman computer science class?

Programmers love a Gentic AI, but how exactly are they using these tools?

For those of you who followed the tech news this past week,

these are all pressing questions. And we're going to try to find some answers. I'm Cal Newport,

and this is the AI reality check. Now, I want to do a quick aside before we get into this

week's stories, because this is a new format for my podcast feed. I want to do a quick aside before we get into this week's stories, because this is a

new format for my podcast feed. I want to give you a quick explanation. More and more on the

main Monday episode of this show, I've been reacting to the latest AI news where I put on my

computer science hat and I try to push back on hype and vibe reporting and surface the deeper trends

in these topics that I think really matter. But not everyone who listens to that Monday episode

wants to hear about this. So I decided I would move the AI discussion to its own many

episodes on Thursdays. This is an experiment. Maybe I'll move it back. Maybe I'll move it to its own feed. Maybe I won't

do it every week. So just bear with me. But keep in mind, if you want to share any of these

episodes, we're also putting it up on YouTube so you can send the video link to someone who might

need to hear some of this reality checking. All right, that's enough logistics. Let's get into our

first story of the week.

All right.

Late last week, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of the FinTech company Block, you know, they're responsible for Stripe and Cash App among some other products, posted a note on X announcing massive layoffs at his company. Let me read you from this note. Dorsey said,

Today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company. We're reducing

our organization by nearly half from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. That means over

4,000 of you are being asked to leave.

...