AI Reality Check: Did the LLM Job Apocalypse Begin Last Week?

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 Gentec 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 uh 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 mini episodes on Thursdays. Uh, 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 uh 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.

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