According to the data, 798 technology companies have made layoffs this year, The layoffs of some of these well-known companies. For example, stock trading app Robinhood has laid off about 7% of its full-time workforce, or about 150 people; Oracle has made massive cuts in its health division and canceled some hiring and recruiting; music streaming platform Spotify plans to cut about 200 people or 2% of the company’s workforce; and Barron’s reported last month, citing people familiar with the matter, that Chinese e-commerce giant Facebook’s parent company Meta platform has already made three rounds of layoffs this year, cutting a total of 21,000 jobs this year in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the company’s “year of efficiency.

In addition, Microsoft’s Collage has announced it will cut more than 700 employees and shutter its local job app in China; Amazon has cut jobs in its Amazon Web Services and human resources departments; video game publisher EA plans to cut 6 percent of its workforce to reduce costs; and streaming company Roku has revealed it will lay off 200 employees as a cost-saving plan. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, the San Francisco-based company has also made significant layoffs. Musk called the layoff of nearly 6,500 people, or 80 percent of the company’s workforce, “painful” and “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

According to analysis, the massive layoffs in the global technology industry are related to the new crown epidemic, market competition, cost pressure, business restructuring and other factors. For the laid-off tech talent, finding new employment opportunities is a challenge. And for tech companies, it is also a challenge to stay competitive and innovative.

The post Global tech layoffs hit a record high, with 210,000 tech talent out of work this year appeared first on TechGoing.

ChatGPT is already powerful enough to write articles and marketing materials, write computer code, and help analyze financial reports, and OpenAI researchers estimate that ChatGPT and future software tools built with its underlying technology could impact about 19% of U.S. jobs and that at least 50% of those jobs could be replaced by AI for those tasks.

At the same time, 80% of U.S. employees would be affected by ChatGPT for at least 10% of their work tasks. The study adds, “Our analysis suggests that large language models like GPT-4 are likely to have a much broader impact.”

In addition, the researchers found that higher-paying jobs may face more potential impact from AI chatbots, as these jobs may involve more software tasks. In their report, they said, “We found that jobs that rely heavily on scientific and critical thinking skills are less vulnerable, while jobs related to programming and writing skills are vulnerable to the impact.”

The OpenAI researchers used a variety of metrics to categorize which occupations would be most affected by ChatGPT. Among the most affected occupations were interpreters, translators, poets, lyricists, creative writers, PR specialists, writers, mathematicians, tax preparers, blockchain engineers, accountants, auditors, and journalists.

The report also breaks down the impact of ChatGPT by industry, with industries such as data processing hosting, publishing, and secure commodity contracts among those most likely to be disrupted. In contrast, manual labour-based industries least potentially affected, such as food service, forestry and logging, social assistance, and food manufacturing.

For this assessment, OpenAI studied more than 1,000 occupations in the United States and quantified the tasks required to complete those jobs. The researchers then used an artificial annotator and the GPT-4 model to rate whether using a ChatGPT-powered system would reduce the time required for humans to perform specific tasks by at least 50%.

The researchers acknowledge that the study’s attempt to generalize about each occupation by simply quantifying the way work tasks are performed is inherently flawed. The study adds, “It is unclear to what extent occupations can be completely broken down into distinct tasks, or whether this approach systematically ignores certain skills needed to perform these jobs competently.”

Another problem is that GPT demonstrations have shown that this technique can make obvious mistakes, including fabricating information, which makes increased human oversight necessary. And this is a factor not considered in the aforementioned study. In addition, the study only looked at whether ChatGPT could reduce the amount of time needed to complete various occupational tasks, not that it was smart enough to fully automate certain tasks.

Nonetheless, the researchers expect ChatGPT and its future iterations to dramatically change the way people work. As a result, society and policymakers need to be prepared. The researchers conclude, “The capabilities of large language models will continue to improve over time, and their growing economic impact is expected to persist even if we stop the development of new capabilities today.”

The post OpenAI: ChatGPT could have a major impact on 19% of US jobs appeared first on TechGoing.

Apple has been slowing down its hiring efforts since July of last year, suspending hiring for most jobs except research and development. Apple is again expanding its hiring freeze by not hiring new members for teams developing future devices and advancing long-term Apple growth initiatives.

In addition to the expanded hiring freeze, Apple also plans to reduce bonuses for some employees. Apple offers bonuses and promotions 1-2 times a year depending on the department, and these bonuses are typically paid in April and October each year. it has learned from a Bloomberg report that Apple has plans to reduce bonuses to once a year. Employees will still receive full bonuses, but they will be delayed until October of each year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s pay has also been reduced this year, and he will receive $49 million in salary, bonuses and stock awards, down about 50 percent from $99 million in 2022.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has also tightened its budget review system and is requiring mid- and senior-level checks on office attendance and limiting personnel travel.

The post Apple further cuts costs: freezing hiring, delays employee bonuses and limits travel appeared first on TechGoing.

According to Sky News, Microsoft is likely to announce plans to cut a large number of jobs worldwide in the next few days. Microsoft has more than 220,000 employees, including 6,000 in the United Kingdom. Microsoft is reportedly considering cutting about 5 percent of its workforce, which would amount to about 11,000 jobs if the information is accurate. As of Tuesday evening local time, Sky News could not confirm the layoff figure. One analyst said Wall Street would be surprised if the job cuts were no larger than that.

According to other media reports, people familiar with the matter said that Microsoft plans to lay off employees in several engineering departments on Wednesday. The specific size of the layoffs is unclear, but will greatly exceed the other layoffs Microsoft has made in the past year. These previous layoffs have affected less than 1 percent of Microsoft’s 200,000-plus employees.

Recently, Microsoft has been in July and October of last year for layoffs, and canceled a number of departments of the vacant positions, suspended the recruitment. While tech peers such as Amazon.com, Facebook parent Meta Platform and Salesforce have announced thousands of layoffs in the past few months, Microsoft has so far been taking smaller steps to address the worsening global economic outlook and the possibility of a long-term slowdown in demand for software and services.

Microsoft will release its fiscal third-quarter earnings next week. If Microsoft’s job cuts are finalized, the company could announce them before Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella briefs investors on the company’s financial results on Jan. 24. Microsoft’s third-quarter sales are expected to grow 2 percent, which would be the slowest revenue growth since fiscal 2017. Microsoft’s cloud business has driven a recovery in growth since fiscal 2017, but even that business has begun to decelerate in the past year.

Microsoft would not comment. As of Tuesday’s close, Microsoft shares were up 0.47 percent, having fallen a cumulative 23 percent over the past year.

The post Microsoft plans to launch major layoffs, sources say, up to 11,000 people appeared first on TechGoing.