Prof. Jeffrey Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, an advisor to political leaders around the world, a bestselling author, and a global leader in sustainable development. Prof. Sachs discusses the reckless surprise attack on Iran, and the dangerous escalation as the US is making preparations to join the war.
Geoffrey Hinton said that he’d be “terrified” if he had certain jobs. Mark Blinch/REUTERS
Jun 16, 2025, 5:34 PM GMT+1Share
The “Godfather of AI” said certain industries are going to be wiped out sooner than others.
Geoffrey Hinton said that “mundane intellectual labor” is at the most risk.
He said mass job displacement is the biggest immediate threat to happiness, and it’s already here.
Now is a great time to become a plumber, at least according to the so-called Godfather of AI.
Geoffrey Hinton, who previously worked at Google and earned his nickname for his work on neural networks, laid out the risks of mass joblessness during an interview on the ‘Diary of a CEO’ podcast that aired June 16. He said that, eventually, the technology will “get to be better than us at everything,” but some fields are safer than others in the interim.
“I’d say it’s going to be a long time before it’s as good at physical manipulation,” Hinton said. “So a good bet would be to be a plumber.”
Gen Zers, who are trapped in a brutal job market, are gravitating more and more toward blue-collar work, as BI previously reported.
“For mundane intellectual labor, AI is just going to replace everybody,” Hinton said. He flagged paralegals as at risk, and said he’d be “terrified” if he worked in a call center. You would, he said, have to be “very skilled” to have an AI-proof job.
Hinton sees the risk of mass job displacement as the biggest immediate threat to human unhappiness. Even if there’s a universal basic income, as Hinton advocates, he thinks people would lack a sense of purpose without a job.
Some argue that the fear that AI will displace entry-level work is overblown. Hinton agreed with the idea that some roles will be replaced by humans working with an AI assistant rather than just the technology, but he said that means one person will do what used to be the work of 10 people. For many industries, he said, that will mean mass firings.
A few areas, like healthcare, will be able to absorb the change, since there’s almost endless demand.
“But most jobs, I think, are not like that,” Hinton said.
Reddit went public in March 2024 with a promise to monetize its vast archive of human conversation. Fifteen months later, the platform is delivering on that vision with new AI advertising tools that mine 22 billion posts and comments for marketing insights—but with a twist that sets it apart from competitors racing toward full automation.
At Cannes Lions this week, Reddit unveiled Community Intelligence, a suite that includes Reddit Insights for analyzing topics and brands across the platform, and Conversation Summary Add-ons that let advertisers showcase positive user sentiment below their ads. Unlike Meta’s push toward fully automated ad creation by 2026 or Google’s agentic campaign management, Reddit is positioning AI as a tool to surface authentic human conversations rather than replace them.”Reddit responds so quickly to new products and what’s happening in the world,” COO Jen Wong told Axios, emphasizing that the AI layer is designed to be “light” and always reveals paths back to actual communities and posts.
Reddit’s financial performance since going public validates its differentiated approach. Revenue grew 71% to $428 million in Q4 2024, with daily active users reaching 101.7 million. Crucially, Reddit has achieved two consecutive profitable quarters while diversifying beyond advertising through $203 million in data licensing deals, including partnerships with Google and OpenAI.The platform’s community-first approach capitalizes on growing demand for authenticity.
Research shows AI-generated ads with proper disclosure achieve 96% higher trust ratings, while brands positioning themselves as “AI-free” gain differentiation. Reddit offers marketers access to high-intent conversations where users actively seek advice—particularly valuable in categories like health, technology and finance.The social listening market, valued at $9.15 billion in 2024, faces fragmentation as platforms implement varying AI content policies. Consumer trust continues declining, with Gartner predicting 50% of users will limit social media use by 2025 due to perceived quality decay.
AI cleaning robots get $800M boost to go subscription-based
Source: ChatGPT 4o
Commercial cleaning is evolving far beyond the household Roomba. While consumer robots vacuum living rooms, businesses need industrial-grade machines that can scrub hospital floors, disinfect office spaces and navigate complex environments autonomously. These sophisticated systems dispense cleaning solutions, scrub surfaces edge-to-edge and extract dirty water — capabilities that come with price tags reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The details: Cardinal Robotics has raised $800 million to solve this accessibility problem by offering robots through a subscription model. The company secured funding from 15 banks to cover manufacturing costs upfront, allowing them to lease two- to four-foot-tall robots to businesses for manageable monthly fees instead of requiring massive capital expenditures. Since 2020, Cardinal has distributed 35,000 robots worth roughly $25,000 each, totaling $875 million in deployments.
Co-founder Anand Lalwani told The Information that businesses pay annual interest rates of 3% to 5% on leased robots, with cleaning robots costing as little as $2.99 per hour. The company sources most robots from Chinese manufacturers like Gaussian Robotics and Pudu Robotics, though it’s diversifying supply chains due to rising tariffs.
Why it matters: The commercial robotics market is advancing rapidly beyond consumer expectations. Cardinal Robotic’s supplier Gaussian Robotics raised $188 million and another robotics cleaning company, Avidbots, secured a $70 million Series C to deploy industrial systems in airports and hospitals worldwide. These robots use LiDAR mapping to create detailed facility maps and work independently for hours with real-time cloud monitoring.
Cardinal has expanded beyond cleaning through partnerships including a SoftBank joint venture for Australian real estate properties, and now finances other robotics companies like massage robot maker Aescape and delivery bot provider Ottonomy.
Unlike $400 Roombas that randomly bump around furniture using basic sensors, commercial systems coordinate with building management systems and handle specialized tasks like UV disinfection. The robots-as-a-service model reflects growing demand for flexible financing as businesses face labor shortages and rising operational costs.
Eleanor Maguire was a renowned cognitive neuroscientist known for her groundbreaking research on the brain’s role in memory, navigation, and imagination. Her work, particularly focusing on the hippocampus, transformed our understanding of how these cognitive functions are supported by the brain. She employed innovative experimental methods and analysis techniques, combining neuroimaging studies with neuropsychological investigations of patients with memory impairments.
Here’s a more detailed look at her contributions:
Hippocampal Research: Maguire’s research extensively explored the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory and spatial navigation.
Scene Construction Theory: She proposed the “Scene Construction Theory,” which suggests that the hippocampus plays a vital role in constructing spatial representations used for both memory and imagination.
Memory and Imagination: Her work demonstrated that damage to the hippocampus can impair not only the ability to recall past experiences but also the capacity to imagine future events.
Neuroplasticity: She studied how the brain adapts and changes in response to learning and experience, particularly focusing on the hippocampus’s ability to undergo structural changes in response to spatial memory demands.
London Taxi Drivers Study: Her research on London taxi drivers, where she examined the relationship between spatial memory and hippocampal structure, is a notable example of her innovative approach. She found that experienced taxi drivers had a larger posterior hippocampus compared to those who failed the demanding spatial navigation test.
Interdisciplinary Approach: Maguire effectively bridged the fields of neuroimaging and neuropsychology, providing a unique perspective on cognitive neuroscience.
Impact on Cognitive Neuroscience: Her work has had a profound impact on the field, influencing how we understand the neural underpinnings of memory, navigation, and imagination.
Legacy: Maguire’s legacy continues through her published works, inspiring researchers and clinicians, and through her influence on the understanding of the brain’s plasticity and its capacity to adapt to learning and experience.
AI for Good: The potential of brain-computer interfaces in medicine
Source: Midjourney v7
What if paralyzed stroke survivors could control robotic arms with their thoughts, or autistic children could engage in therapy through mind-controlled games? Researchers worldwide are making these possibilities reality through AI-powered brain-computer interfaces.
What’s happening: Scientists are developing systems that read electrical brain activity through scalp electrodes and use AI to translate those signals into commands for external devices. Recent studies show these non-invasive approaches can help stroke patients regain motor function and assist autistic children in social engagement activities.
At Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, researchers successfully used brain-computer interfaces as recreational therapy for autistic children, allowing them to control remote-controlled cars through mental focus. The program helped improve attention and engagement while providing therapeutic benefits without the stress of traditional interventions.
How it works:
Electrodes on the scalp collect electrical brain activityAI interprets the brain signals linked to movement or intention. The system provides real-time feedback based on mental focus. This creates a closed loop that helps the brain practice tasks..Progress continues even if the body cannot move yet
Meanwhile, a comprehensive review published in March 2025 analyzing 18 studies found that brain-computer interfaces show significant promise for stroke rehabilitation. The technology works by detecting brain signals linked to intended movements, even when patients cannot physically move, and providing real-time feedback that encourages neural recovery.
Why it matters: Traditional stroke rehabilitation requires some remaining motor function, leaving severely paralyzed patients with few options. Brain-computer interfaces offer hope for the 30-50% of stroke survivors with complete chronic paralysis by creating new pathways for the brain to practice and potentially rewire itself.
University of Melbourne researchers are pioneering an endovascular approach called the Stentrode, which deploys brain interfaces through blood vessels rather than invasive skull surgery. The device remains effectively invisible to the brain, reducing rejection risk while enabling direct neural control of external devices.
For autism applications, the technology’s appeal lies in its engaging, game-like interface that can maintain children’s attention while supporting therapeutic goals like social communication and focus training.
The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), a nonprofit research lab, unveiled RoboBrain 2.0, a cutting-edge open-source AI model designed to act as the “brain” for humanoids and advanced robots.
The details: RoboBrain 2.0 is engineered to serve as the cognitive core for humanoids, offering major improvements in spatial intelligence and task planning.Compared to its predecessor, released three months earlier, this new model delivers a 17% increase in processing speed and a 74% boost in accuracy. BAAI is already collaborating with some 20 Chinese robotics firms to accelerate innovation and adoption of advanced robotics across varied industries. RoboBrain 2.0 is part of BAAI’s broader Wujie model series, which also includes cloud-based platform RoboOS 2.0 and multimodel system Emu3.
Why it matters: BAAI director Wang Zhongyuan described RoboBrain 2.0 as the world’s most powerful open-source AI model for robotics, with execs from Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent attending the launch.
Despite being placed on the U.S. Entity List, BAAI is forging ahead with new partnerships to boost talent and tech exchange.
It is a conflict that has the potential to ignite the entire Middle East. Israel has been attacking Iran, saying Tehran’s nuclear programme poses an existential threat. Iran for its part, has responded with a barrage of retaliatory attacks. But now, what role can the global community play? China, Russia and Turkiye have condemned Israel’s actions. Beijing and Moscow maintain economic and political ties with both Iran and Israel. So, what, if anything, can these powers do to end the conflict? And is there a shift in dynamics in the region? Presenter: Adrian Finigan Guests Barin Kayaoglu, Chair and Assistant Professor of American Studies at Social Sciences University of Ankara. Glenn Carle, Career CIA Officer and Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats from the National Intelligence Council Nikolay Surkov, Assistant Professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations
Source: ChatGPT 4o
Source: ChatGPT 4o
Source: Midjourney v7
Image source: BAAI/X
