Daily dispatch

April 24, 2026

Issue filed Apr 24, 2026 · 24 headlines · By Oz Gultekin

Daily dispatch for April 24, 2026. 24 headlines from labour, tech, and policy feeds, rewritten by hand for the class war in progress.

№ 01 The Verge

Meta is laying off 10 percent of its staff

Meta plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce, affecting approximately 8,000 employees, while closing 6,000 open positions as it prioritizes artificial intelligence investment.
№ 02 The Guardian

Microsoft and Meta announce large staff reductions as they spend big on AI

Meta and Microsoft are reducing headcount by thousands as they escalate spending on AI, with Meta cutting 10 percent of staff and Microsoft offering voluntary retirement to 7 percent.
№ 03 Financial Times

Meta to cut 10% of jobs to ‘offset’ Zuckerberg’s AI spending

Meta will cut 10 percent of jobs to offset $135 billion in planned spending on data centers this year as it accelerates artificial intelligence development.
№ 04 The New York Times

Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s Epic Fight Heads to Court

A jury trial beginning Monday will see Elon Musk seek billions in damages from Sam Altman's OpenAI, potentially reshaping the trajectory of the artificial intelligence race.
№ 05 The Verge

China’s DeepSeek previews new AI model a year after jolting US rivals

Chinese AI company DeepSeek released a preview of its V4 model, claiming it can compete with leading closed-source systems from US rivals including Google and OpenAI.
№ 06 The New York Times

How Elon Musk Used SpaceX to Benefit Himself and His Businesses

SpaceX has served as a financial tool for Elon Musk, providing loans and supporting his other struggling businesses, according to a New York Times examination.
№ 07 The Guardian

Grok tells researchers pretending to be delusional ‘drive an iron nail through the mirror while reciting Psalm 91 backwards’

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok 4.1 validated delusional inputs from researchers and elaborated on harmful suggestions, according to a study of the system's behavior.
№ 08 The New York Times

Meta to Lay Off 10 Percent of Work Force in A.I. Push

Meta will lay off 10 percent of its workforce, affecting about 8,000 employees, while closing 6,000 open roles as the company focuses on artificial intelligence.
№ 09 VentureBeat

Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

Salesforce launched a rebuilt Slackbot AI agent capable of searching enterprise data, drafting documents, and taking action on behalf of employees in workplace settings.
№ 10 The New York Times

Sam Altman’s Next High-Wire Act: Getting OpenAI to Make More Money

Sam Altman has culled company projects and is pursuing a more disciplined strategy to address criticism over OpenAI's direction and increase profitability.
№ 11 The Guardian

Will the backlash against AI turn violent?, podcast

An attack on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home and the company's headquarters has raised concerns that backlash against artificial intelligence could turn violent.
№ 12 The Verge

Claude is connecting directly to your personal apps like Spotify, Uber Eats, and TurboTax

Anthropic expanded Claude's capabilities to connect directly to personal apps including Spotify, Uber Eats, TurboTax, and others beyond existing work-related integrations.
№ 13 The New York Times

OpenAI Unveils Its New, More Powerful GPT-5.5 Model

OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.5, its new more powerful model, while taking a more open approach to cybersecurity than rival Anthropic.
№ 14 VentureBeat

Claude Code costs up to $200 a month. Goose does the same thing for free.

Anthropic's Claude Code costs up to $200 monthly, sparking developer backlash as alternative tools like Goose offer similar coding capabilities for free.
№ 15 Financial Times

UK in talks with Anthropic over Mythos access for banks

British lenders are seeking advice from US companies testing Anthropic's Mythos, a powerful new cybersecurity AI model, according to Financial Times reporting.
№ 16 TechCrunch

OpenAI releases GPT-5.5, bringing company one step closer to an AI ‘super app’

OpenAI released GPT-5.5, claiming the latest model offers increased capabilities across a broad variety of categories and use cases.
№ 17 The Verge

Anthropic’s Mythos breach was humiliating

Anthropic's carefully controlled rollout of Claude Mythos became awkward after a small group of unauthorized users gained access to the cybersecurity model.
№ 18 The Verge

OpenAI says its new GPT-5.5 model is more efficient and better at coding

OpenAI announced GPT-5.5, describing it as the smartest model yet, excelling at coding, research, spreadsheets, and cross-application work automation.
№ 19 The Guardian

The Guardian view on Anthropic’s Claude Mythos: when AI finds every flaw, who controls the internet? | Editorial

Anthropic's Claude Mythos can find zero-day flaws and exploit them, raising questions about private power, public risk, and control of the shared internet.
№ 20 The Guardian

Ben Jennings on the Met’s interest in using Palantir AI technology, cartoon

Ben Jennings cartoon examines the Metropolitan Police's interest in using Palantir AI technology for law enforcement operations.
№ 21 Financial Times

Microsoft to offer 7% of US staff voluntary redundancy for the first time

Microsoft offered 7 percent of US staff voluntary redundancy for the first time as it prepared to spend $140 billion on artificial intelligence investment.
№ 22 The Verge

THE PEOPLE DO NOT YEARN FOR AUTOMATION

Software brain, a worldview that fits everything into algorithms and databases, has become a dominant way of thinking in technology and artificial intelligence.
№ 23 The Verge

You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze

Anthropic severely restricted OpenClaw, a viral AI agent tool, as leading AI labs face pressure to reduce system strain and improve profitability.
№ 24 Fast Company

How the government is ramping up mass surveillance with AI-driven tech

The federal government is accelerating investment in AI-driven surveillance technology while mandating less oversight around artificial intelligence systems.

Headlines