Latest news with #Lemkin
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CEOs know AI will shrink their teams — they're just too afraid to say it, say 2 software investors
Behind closed doors, CEOs are saying what they won't admit publicly: AI means smaller teams. In public, they stick to the safe script — "we're hiring" — to soften the blow, one investor said. From Klarna to Duolingo, companies that touted bold AI plans have quickly walked them back after backlash. AI is a tool to boost productivity, not to take anyone's job, according to the script many CEOs have been using. Behind closed doors, it's a very different conversation, said two software investors on an episode of the "Twenty Minute VC" podcast published Thursday. "Public companies are trying to prepare their teams for it, but the backlash was too strong," said Jason Lemkin, an investor in software startups. Instead, CEOs fall back on the safer line: "In fact, we're hiring." "That seems to take the edge off," Lemkin said. "But I think they're just walking back the fact that everybody knows they don't need 30% to 40% of the team they have today. Everybody says this," he added. "It's too hard for people to hear. There's only so much honesty you can get from a CEO," he said. Rory O'Driscoll, a longtime general partner at Scale Venture Partners, said CEOs can't talk about job loss because employees will "lose their shit." He said what ends up getting shared publicly is a "very bland statement" full of "standard corporate speak for how you talk about AI." "No one is going to get fired. You're just going to do more interesting things," O'Driscoll said. "That's the current state of the lie." From Klarna to Duolingo, several companies have tested the waters with bold AI declarations — only to backtrack. Klarna' CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, said in December that AI "can already do all of the jobs" humans do, and that the company has stopped hiring for over a year. But earlier this month, he walked it back, saying his pursuit of AI-driven job cuts may have gone too far. Duolingo's CEO, Luis von Ahn, also faced criticism after posting a memo on LinkedIn last month describing plans to make the company "AI-first." He later said on LinkedIn that he does not see AI replacing what his employees do and that Duolingo is "continuing to hire at the same speed as before." Lemkin and O'Driscoll did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Lemkin said mass layoffs could hit in the next two years as companies come to terms with a new reality. He added that he expects overall headcount to "stay flat." There will be "efficiencies" and also "jobs that would have existed in the absence of this product that won't exist now," said O'Driscoll. "So there will be tension." O'Driscoll said he sees a gradual shift — more of a "steady grind" of 2% to 3% less hiring each year. Tech companies, in particular, will see "significantly reduced hiring", he added. Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, said on Thursday that AI could soon eliminate 50% of entry-level office jobs. AI companies and the government need to stop "sugarcoating" the risks of mass job elimination in fields including technology, finance, law, and consulting, Amodei said. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
30-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
CEOs know AI will shrink their teams — they're just too afraid to say it, say 2 software investors
Behind closed doors, it's a very different conversation, said two software investors on an episode of the "Twenty Minute VC" podcast published Thursday. "Public companies are trying to prepare their teams for it, but the backlash was too strong," said Jason Lemkin, an investor in software startups. Instead, CEOs fall back on the safer line: "In fact, we're hiring." "That seems to take the edge off," Lemkin said. "But I think they're just walking back the fact that everybody knows they don't need 30% to 40% of the team they have today. Everybody says this," he added. "It's too hard for people to hear. There's only so much honesty you can get from a CEO," he said. Rory O'Driscoll, a longtime general partner at Scale Venture Partners, said CEOs can't talk about job loss because employees will "lose their shit." He said what ends up getting shared publicly is a "very bland statement" full of "standard corporate speak for how you talk about AI." "No one is going to get fired. You're just going to do more interesting things," O'Driscoll said. "That's the current state of the lie." From Klarna to Duolingo, several companies have tested the waters with bold AI declarations — only to backtrack. Klarna' CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, said in December that AI "can already do all of the jobs" humans do, and that the company has stopped hiring for over a year. But earlier this month, he walked it back, saying his pursuit of AI-driven job cuts may have gone too far. Duolingo's CEO, Luis von Ahn, also faced criticism after posting a memo on LinkedIn last month describing plans to make the company "AI-first." He later said on LinkedIn that he does not see AI replacing what his employees do and that Duolingo is "continuing to hire at the same speed as before." Lemkin and O'Driscoll did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Layoffs are happening Lemkin said mass layoffs could hit in the next two years as companies come to terms with a new reality. He added that he expects overall headcount to "stay flat." There will be "efficiencies" and also "jobs that would have existed in the absence of this product that won't exist now," said O'Driscoll. "So there will be tension." O'Driscoll said he sees a gradual shift — more of a "steady grind" of 2% to 3% less hiring each year.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Russia's persecution of Ukrainian clergy is part of an organized genocidal campaign
In 1953, Polish-American lawyer Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term "genocide," wrote a text titled Soviet Genocide in Ukraine. In it, Lemkin spoke not only about the Holodomor — the man-made famine organized in Ukraine by Stalin in 1932–1933 that claimed the lives of around 4 million people — but also about the Kremlin's broader genocidal practices against Ukrainians, which, he argued, had begun as early as the 1920s. Lemkin wrote that Ukrainians were too numerous to be exterminated entirely in the way Adolf Hitler had attempted with Europe's Jewish population. "Ukraine is highly susceptible to racial murder by select parts, and so the Communist tactics there have not followed the pattern taken by the German attacks against the Jews," the lawyer argued. He went on to describe how this was carried out: "The first blow is aimed at the intelligentsia, the national brain, so as to paralyze the rest of the body.... Going along with this attack on the intelligentsia was an attack against the churches, priests and hierarchy, the 'soul' of Ukraine." As an example of this attack against the "soul of the nation," Lemkin cited the liquidation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Catholic Church. "That Russification was clearly demonstrated by the fact that before its liquidation, the Church was offered the opportunity to join the Russian Patriarchate of Moscow, the Kremlin's political tool," he emphasized. We are bringing back Lemkin's text again today, not for purely historical reasons. It helps explain what the Kremlin is currently doing in the territories of Ukraine it occupies. We already referenced Soviet Genocide in Ukraine last year. In our investigative documentary Destroy in Whole or in Part, we argued that Russia's current genocidal practices in Ukraine broadly mirror what the Soviet regime has been doing a century back. Our latest investigative documentary, No God but Theirs, which has just been released, compels us to revisit Lemkin's analysis once more. Read also: Breakaway churches, spiritual awakenings, prayers in captivity. How war is changing Ukraine's faith This investigation examines the systematic persecution of Ukrainian Christians in Melitopol — a city in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast, occupied by Russia since February 2022. It tells the story of churches (Protestant and Catholic alike) being banned, stripped of all property, and of priests and congregants being arrested, interrogated, and exiled. While restrictions on religious freedoms are typical for Russia, the persecution in the occupied parts of Ukraine goes far beyond what occurs inside Russia itself. And these persecutions indeed resemble an attack on the "soul of the nation" — precisely the kind Lemkin described. It is an attack on Christians who, at the very outset of Russia's invasion, demonstrated a clear national identity. In response to the arrival of Russian troops and tanks in Melitopol, local believers began gathering daily on the city's central square. Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians together resisted the Russian occupation through joint prayer for Ukraine. Moreover, in the chaos created by the Russian occupation, churches became islands of stability and order. Priests and pastors were seen more and more as moral authorities. For the Russians, therefore, to attack those churches in Melitopol meant also to strike against any alternative centers of power. And the parallels with Lemkin's text do not end there. Just as a hundred years back, as described by the author of the term "genocide," before simply banning the churches, the Russians attempted to absorb them first. Pastor Mykhailo Brytsyn of the Grace Baptist Church recounts in our documentary how the Russian troops offered him a chance to publicly support the Russian authorities. Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Oleksandr Bohomaz tells how agents of Russian security services tried to coerce him into revealing the secrets of his confessional. Pentecostal pastor Dmytro Bodyu describes how, during his imprisonment and interrogations, he was offered the chance to become a Russian informant. Only after these efforts to convert Ukrainian clergymen in Melitopol into Russian assets had failed did Kremlin representatives decide to simply eliminate them — once again, fully following the model Lemkin described. And there is another crucial point to highlight. While restrictions on religious freedoms are typical for Russia, the persecution in the occupied parts of Ukraine goes far beyond what occurs inside Russia itself. This means that in places like occupied Melitopol, Russia is not merely replicating its usual policies — it is crafting a new, much harsher one specifically for Ukrainians. Given all this, our new investigation of the persecution of Ukrainian Christian churches in Melitopol is a direct continuation of the previous documentary, which laid out the genocidal intent behind Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Because, in line with Raphael Lemkin's deep and nuanced analysis, these persecutions amount to an attack on the Ukrainian nation as a group. An attempt to eradicate the soul of the Ukrainian nation — with the broader aim of destroying the nation in whole or in part. Ultimately, the story of the persecution of Christians in Melitopol gives yet another reason to finally dare to use, in reference to Russia's actions in Ukraine, the very word that Lemkin coined — genocide. Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent. Read also: Faith under fire: Russia's war on religion in Ukraine's occupied territories Submit an Opinion We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Chicago Tribune
27-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Holocaust Remembrance Day: Recognizing ‘the gravity of what happened'
A trip to Poland makes the horrors of the Holocaust really hit home, University of Notre Dame professor Emilia Justyna Powell told members of Temple Israel Valparaiso Friday during a Holocaust Remembrance Day service. 'I think everyone should go not only to see what happened but to recognize the gravity of what happened,' she said. Powell takes a small group of students to Auschwitz each year to tour the Nazi death camp. 'At some point, every student starts to collapse,' she said. The horrors of the Holocaust hit home when the sheer numbers are visualized. Friday, six candles were lit to represent the 6 million Jews who died during the Holocaust. Rabbi Shoshana Feferman listed who each candle represented – helpless infants, children and teenagers; all others who died with children in their arms; mothers and fathers cruelly separated from their families; scholars, teachers and rabbis who were the first to be seized; heroes of the resistance who fought against the Nazis; and martyrs who gave their lives to help protect brothers and sisters against the Nazis. 'Sadly, 2 million victims were never identified,' Feferman said. Simply reading the names of all the victims nonstop would take 11.5 years, she said. Powell noted she didn't prepare a PowerPoint presentation with images. 'Some things are just too much,' she said. She grew up in Poland, closely connected with the Holocaust. Powell's birthday is Sept. 1, the day on which World War II began. 'The travesties that happened in the Second World War were part of our lives,' she said. Some of her family members died during the war. 'That's not something you want to hear as a child, that your grandmother at 30 years old was killed by children,' Powell said. 'As we recited today, we can never forget,' she said. 'Many people do forget.' On the trips to Poland, Powell gives important lessons on international law. 'When you think of it, everything the Nazis did was legal,' she said. Domestic law wasn't sufficient to protect the Nazis' victims. Before World War II, international law didn't focus on individuals, except pirates, Powell said. The war changed that. Rafael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer from Poland, coined the term genocide in 1944. Lemkin had fled to the United States. Forty-nine of his relatives were murdered during the war. In 1948, Lemkin persuaded the United Nations to classify genocide as an international crime. That required creating a definition of genocide, which the UN defined as 'acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group,' Powell said. Those acts include killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Not only is the act of genocide punishable but so are conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide and complicity in genocide. 'When you transfer children from one group to another, after a while they lose their identity,' Powell said. When she became a mother, the sorrow and distress she felt when she visited Auschwitz deepened. The tiny shoes representing children murdered by Nazis make the horrors seem more real. Nazi doctor Josef Mengele did experiments on children, among them Eva Kor, who survived the Holocaust and later moved to Indiana. She and her twin sister, Miriam, survived, but their parents and older siblings were killed in the gas chamber. 'Many children called Dr. Mengele father,' Powell said. What the young children experienced in the death camps was reflected in the children's drawings, depicting things like blood, gore and dogs eating corpses. Reading about it, you don't get the same feeling as walking in that place, she said. 'We don't see the people. We don't see the individual names. There were many children, tiny children,' she said. Just walking through the streets, realizing there are bodies buried underneath, hits home for her students. 'These are people that will never see people in the same way,' she said. Powell said about half the students she takes decide to go to law school and major in international law. The oldest students have been out of law school only about five years, so they don't have enough experience to make a major difference in the world yet, but she has faith in them. She warned against propaganda in education, noting people will believe what they're taught. That fueled complacency in Nazi Germany. One of the museums her students visit has original newspapers and books with anti-Jewish propaganda. Among them is a copy of the children's book, 'The Poison Mushroom,' in which a male Jew gives candy to German children and the children get sick. 'Propaganda was a huge part of the Nazi regime,' she said. 'It was an instrument of genocide.' 'What you learn from your parents, what you learn from your grandparents, in a nice colored book, it's going to stick with you,' Powell said.
