Bots, routers, and corporate BS: tech news that’s worth your time

With the world going to the dogs, you don't need another layer of stress. But your daily dose of cybersecurity news can help you stay safe online and make for a nice dinner table conversation.

The US job market is actually ignoring AI

AI is displacing white-collar workers, the headlines scream. However, we looked into recent stats, and you know what, many industries in the US that are supposed to shrink due to AI just keep adding jobs.

Many firms are actually hiring, with lawyers, engineers, and other high-skilled professionals in demand. Since the release of ChatGPT three years ago, the US job market has actually risen by 1.1%.

However, the outlook is grim indeed for some industries. For example, newspaper and periodical publishers shed 16-22% of their workforces, and steep declines were observed in roles such as telemarketing. Young people are at an even higher risk of being replaced by AI.

Your router will bring you to your knees

The US has ranked routers as the most hackable devices and has banned all foreign-made routers due to security concerns. Routers made in China were at the centre of a few high-profile espionage cases.

For example, last year, a China-backed operation hijacked over 50,000 ASUS routers, turning them into components of a cover network.

The ban doesn’t make us immediately secure, as millions of vulnerable routers are still running on outdated software.

What is more, hackers are increasingly targeting middleware. IBM describes middleware as “software glue” that binds different systems together.

The internet is just bots talking to each other

Soon, bots will take over the internet, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince predicts. Some reports claim that bot activity has already surpassed human activity, with 51% of the traffic being bots crawling the internet.

We recently conducted an experiment ourselves to check whether it’s true. We created a brand new website, and it immediately got 30,000 clicks. It was all just engine crawlers and malicious scanners, looking for security holes they could exploit.

In this context, it is a wonder that platforms like Reddit still exist. But they, too, are fighting bots, and they’re left at a crossroads. They either need to introduce identification and deal with privacy issues, or watch as bot infestation slowly kills the platform.

Machines that are smarter than humans

Jensen Huang, the CEO of chip giant Nvidia, thinks that general artificial intelligence (AGI) has already been achieved.

“I think we achieved AGI,” he said on the Lex Friedman podcast. Friedman described AGI as a system capable of starting, running, and growing a successful technology company.

Scientists, however, doubt that AGI is even possible. And maybe it’s a good thing, given that the majority of companies don’t even know how long it would take them to shut down compromised AI systems in their organizations.

People impressed by “corporate bullshit” aren’t the best employees

The Guardian spotted a brilliant study by researchers at Cornell University titled "The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale: Development, validation, and associations with workplace outcomes."

The study discusses corporate bullshit, which it defines as an empty, often confusing corporate communication style that “leverages abstruse corporate buzzwords and jargon in a functionally misleading way.”

Researchers believe that corporate bullshit leaves us people confused, demotivated, and the whole corporation dysfunctional.

Here are a couple of ways how corporate bullshit backfires, according to the researchers.

• High-quality workers may choose to leave companies
• Remaining employees may misinterpret important directives or feedback delivered in an overly stylized or “bullshitty” manner

“At worst, it can disrupt organizational and employee effectiveness in numerous ways, including obstructing clear communication, increasing employee disengagement, tarnishing a company’s reputation, and exposing businesses to potential financial and legal risks,” the study concluded.

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