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Corporate leaders can’t “bulls—” their employees about the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce and the ways in which the technology will affect jobs more broadly, according to one tech billionaire.

Jim Kavanaugh, the CEO of World Wide Technology (WWT), told CNBC that people are “too smart” to accept that AI won’t change the way that they manage their work and that no jobs will be eliminated due to the transformative nature of the technology.

WWT is an enterprise technology solutions provider that focuses on services such as cloud computing, IT security, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and consulting services.

“If you think you’re going to try to game this, and that you’re going to tell employees nothing’s going to change, and everything’s going to be fine, that’s just BS,” Kavanaugh said in an interview last week.

Kavanaugh noted that, though there is no playbook for how business leaders should communicate disruptive macroeconomic events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on jobs, the job of a CEO is “to be as transparent as possible and always honest with their employees about where they stand.”

With AI, “there’s going to be all kinds of changes,” Kavanaugh added. “If I could give any advice, it’s that everybody should be a student of AI and tech and not be afraid of it.”

Even though it’s a given AI will impact the workforce, “none of us have it all completely figured out,” he said. “If anybody comes in and tells you, ‘I can tell you exactly how this is going to impact jobs and how it’s going to impact everything we’re doing,’ they’re lying. Because nobody knows.”

Kavanaugh stressed that, overall, he’s an optimist when it comes to AI’s positive impacts and its ability to improve productivity.

“Sitting there and saying, ‘I’m going to try to throw cold water on this fire, I’m going to try to put it out and ignore it,’ that’s a complete mistake.”

“I believe in embracing [AI] and learning and being realistic about it. Because there will be jobs that will be disrupted, there’s no question about that. But, for the most part, I truly believe it will be an enhancer and an accelerator of what we’re all doing,” Kavanaugh told CNBC.

Kavanaugh co-founded WWT in 1990 with fellow St. Louis, Missouri-based entrepreneur David Steward as a reseller of technology equipment. Today, WWT is a tech giant in its own right, generating revenues of $20 billion annually.

Kavanaugh currently has a net worth of $7 billion, according to real-time data from business news magazine Forbes. Prior to co-founding the company, Kavanaugh represented the U.S. national soccer team in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Is AI a job destroyer, or job creator?

The paper further noted that, in the U.S. and Europe, “roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation,” while generative AI “could substitute up to one-fourth of current work.”

Kavanaugh’s not the only one who sees positive effects stemming from the use of AI in the world of work. Clara Shih, Salesforce’s head of AI, told CNBC that there are jobs that will disappear due to the disruptive impact of the technology.

Whether new technology will replace jobs is “a question that’s been asked throughout time,” Shih said, referring to the creation of automation tools in factories, farming vehicles and machinery, and the internet as examples.

“There are a subset of jobs that are going to go away,” Shih said. “The internet destroyed a lot of jobs. But then it created brand new ones that we couldn’t have even imagined in 1999.”

Ultimately, AI will be a positive force in the world of work, leading to new jobs, according to Shih. However, what our job descriptions look like might change.

“I think what we’re seeing today with AI is that everyone needs a new job description,” Shih said. “Most jobs are not going to go away, but every job is going to require a new job description.”

Last week, as part of its annual Dreamforce event, Salesforce unveiled a new AI platform, called AgentForce. Companies can use the platform to build and customize their own AI “agents,” autonomous digital workers that can help with things like customer service and employee support.

Some companies have even been actively touting the benefits of AI in reducing their overall personnel needs. For example, Swedish fintech firm Klarna said last month that it was able to slash its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 in a single year thanks to AI, and then pay its remaining workers more.

The “buy now, pay later” pioneer told the BBC it is looking to further reduce employee numbers next year, to 2,000 people, through the use of AI in areas like marketing and customer service.

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for $74.7 million

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for .7 million

Anne Wojcicki attends the WSJ Magazine Style & Tech Dinner in Atherton, California, on March 15, 2023.

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23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital have submitted a proposal to take the embattled genetic testing company private, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wojcicki and New Mountain have offered to acquire all of 23andMe’s outstanding shares in cash for $2.53 per share, or an equity value of approximately $74.7 million. The company’s stock closed at $2.42 on Friday with a market cap of about $65 million.

The offer comes after a turbulent year for 23andMe, with the stock losing more than 80% of its value in 2024. In January, the company announced plans to explore strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company or its assets, a restructuring or a business combination. 

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23andMe has a special committee of independent directors in place to evaluate potential paths forward. The company appointed three new independent directors to its board in October after all seven of its previous directors abruptly resigned the prior month. The special committee has to approve Wojcicki and New Mountain’s proposal.

“We believe that our Proposal provides compelling value and immediate liquidity to the Company’s public stockholders,” Wojcicki and Matthew Holt, managing director and president of private equity at New Mountain, wrote in a letter to the special committee on Thursday.

Wojcicki previously submitted a proposal to take the company private for 40 cents per share in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because the members said it lacked committed financing and did not provide a premium to the closing price at the time.

Wojcicki and New Mountain are willing to provide secured debt financing to fund 23andMe’s operations through the transaction’s closing, the filing said. New Mountain is based in New York and has $55 billion of assets under management, according to its website.

23andMe declined to comment.

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

Hims & Hers

Shares of Hims & Hers Health tumbled more than 23% on Friday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the shortage of semaglutide injection products has been resolved.

Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. Those medications are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1s, and demand for the treatments has exploded in recent years. As a result, digital health companies such as Hims & Hers have been prescribing compounded semaglutide as an alternative for patients who are navigating volatile supply hurdles and insurance obstacles.

Compounded drugs are custom-made alternatives to brand-name drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs, and compounders are allowed to produce them when brand-name treatments are in shortage. The FDA doesn’t review the safety and efficacy of compounded products.

Hims & Hers began offering compounded semaglutide to patients in May, and it owns compounding pharmacies that produce the medications.

Compounded medications are typically much cheaper than their branded counterparts. Hims & Hers sells compounded semaglutide for less than $200 per month, while Ozempic and Wegovy both cost around $1,000 per month without insurance.

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The FDA said Friday that it will start taking action against compounders for violations in the next 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of facility, in order to “avoid unnecessary disruption to patient treatment.”

“Now that the FDA has determined the drug shortage for semaglutide has been resolved, we will continue to offer access to personalized treatments as allowed by law to meet patient needs,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum posted Friday on X. “We’re also closely monitoring potential future shortages, as Novo Nordisk stated two weeks ago that it would continue to have ‘capacity limitations’ and ‘expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications.'”

Him & Hers’ weight loss offerings have been a massive hit with investors. Shares of the company climbed more than 200% last year, and the stock is already up more than 100% this year despite Friday’s move.

Even before it added compounded GLP-1s to its portfolio, the company said in its 2023 fourth-quarter earnings call that it expects its weight loss program to bring in more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2025.

Despite the turbulent regulatory landscape, Hims & Hers has showed no signs of slowing down.

On Friday, the company announced it has acquired a U.S.-based peptide facility that will “further verticalize the company’s long-term ability to deliver personalized medications.” Hims & Hers will explore advances across metabolic optimization, recovery science, biological resistances, cognitive performance and preventative health through the acquisition, the company said.

That move comes just days after Hims & Hers also bought Trybe Labs, the New Jersey-based at-home lab testing facility. Trybe Labs will allow Hims & Hers to perform at-home blood draws and more comprehensive pretreatment testing.

Hims & Hers did not disclose the terms of either deal.

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

Tesla models Y and 3 are displayed at a Tesla dealership in Corte Madera, California, on Dec. 20, 2024.

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Tesla is voluntarily recalling 376,241vehicles in the U.S. to correct an issue with failing power-assisted steering systems, according to records posted to the website of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In a safety recall report posted on the NHTSA website, Tesla said the recall includes Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that were manufactured for sale in the U.S. from Feb. 28, 2023, to October 11, 2023, and that were equipped with a certain older software release.

The records said printed circuit boards in the steering systems in affected vehicles could become overstressed, causing the power-assist steering to fail in some cases when a Tesla vehicle rolled to a stop and then accelerated.

When electronic power-assist steering systems fail in a Tesla, drivers need to exert more force to steer their cars, which can increase the risk of a collision.

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Tesla told the vehicle safety regulator that it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the power steering failures, and that it was offering an over-the-air software update as a remedy.

The recall follows an earlier related probe and voluntary recall in China concerning the same systems.

President Donald Trump has appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a team that is slashing the federal government workforce, and in some cases, regulations and entire agencies. Those cuts already affected the NHTSA, an agency Musk has long seen as standing in the way of some of his ambitions at Tesla.

The regulator has been engaged in a yearslong investigation into safety defects in the systems that Tesla markets currently as its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) options. The features do not make Tesla cars into robotaxis. They require a human driver ready to steer or brake at any time.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Musk’s team has led mass firings at the NHTSA, reducing the agency’s workforce and capacity to investigate companies including Tesla by about 10%.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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