Annie Palmer
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anniepalmer.bsky.social
Annie Palmer
@anniepalmer.bsky.social
tech reporter @ cnbc
not too late to add retro gameboy made from attack drone metal to your christmas wishlist!
December 19, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Amazon is shaking up its AI leadership: Andy Jassy announced today that Rohit Prasad will leave at the end of the year.

He'll be replaced by longtime AWS exec Peter DeSantis, who will oversee a newly expanded AGI unit and report directly to Jassy.
www.cnbc.com/2025/12/17/a...
Amazon says AI chief Rohit Prasad is leaving, Peter DeSantis to lead 'AGI' group
Rohit Prasad, a top Amazon executive overseeing its artificial general intelligence unit, is leaving at the end of this year, the company confirmed.
www.cnbc.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Meta is developing a new frontier AI model called Avocado, but performance problems have delayed it to 2026.
The company’s shift from open source to proprietary AI is causing internal confusion. Good scoop by @jonathanvanian.bsky.social www.cnbc.com/2025/12/09/m...
From Llamas to Avocados: Meta's shifting AI strategy is causing internal confusion
Meta’s push to develop its next frontier model, codenamed Avocado, under new AI leadership is creating internal friction as it races rivals OpenAI and Google.
www.cnbc.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
new: people across Wisconsin are increasingly standing up to AI data centers. at the old Foxconn site, citizens are thankful for Microsoft, but they said no to a new Microsoft data center 20 miles away. worries range from a loss of open land to meager tax payments www.cnbc.com/2025/11/25/m...
Why rural Wisconsin is blocking the AI data center boom: 'Horses are skittish'
Tech giants are increasingly facing community backlash as they select places to build mammoth AI data centers.
www.cnbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
scoop: An Amazon Prime Air drone snapped an internet cable in Waco, TX last week, prompting the FAA to open a probe into the matter.

We obtained video of the incident, which shows the drone shearing a wire line then landing in a customer's yard.
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/25/a...
Amazon faces FAA probe after delivery drone snaps internet cable in Texas
The probe comes as Amazon faces stiffer competition from Walmart, which has also begun drone deliveries.
www.cnbc.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Late night scoop from @anniepalmer.bsky.social:

Amazon faces FAA probe after delivery drone snaps internet cable in Texas

www.cnbc.com/2025/11/25/a...
Amazon faces FAA probe after delivery drone snaps internet cable in Texas
The probe comes as Amazon faces stiffer competition from Walmart, which has also begun drone deliveries.
www.cnbc.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:20 AM
New: Amazon's mass layoffs last month hit engineers the hardest, according to WARN notices.

We analyzed docs in WA, CA, NY and NJ and found that 40% of the job cuts in those states were engineering roles. Product managers & program managers were also heavily impacted.
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/21/a...
Amazon cut more than 1,800 engineers in record layoffs, despite saying it needs to innovate faster
Nearly 40% of the roughly 4,700 positions Amazon eliminated across Washington, New York, New Jersey and California were engineering jobs.
www.cnbc.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
This really hasn’t gotten enough attention this week.

@wired.com #ICE
www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Amazon staffers tell @anniepalmer.bsky.social they feel like they’re under an “incredible amount of pressure” and “burdened with more work” than before, following waves of mass layoffs. The potential for more layoffs next year has created further anxiety. cnb.cx/47FNeym
Amazon upheaval: With morale shaken, Jassy looks for next big play after mass layoffs
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been overhauling the company's corporate culture in recent years, and went even further last week, announcing 14,000 layoffs.
cnb.cx
November 5, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Some great nuggets in here about what’s going on inside Amazon right now, from @anniepalmer.bsky.social

www.cnbc.com/2025/11/05/a...
Amazon upheaval: With morale shaken, Jassy looks for next big play after mass layoffs
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been overhauling the company's corporate culture in recent years, and went even further last week, announcing 14,000 layoffs.
www.cnbc.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Palantir's comms chief said she's concerned about its political shift toward the Trump admin, including embracing parts of Trump's agenda and inking a contract with ICE to build "ImmigrantOS"

"I think it's going to be challenging," she said.
via @jennelias.bsky.social: www.cnbc.com/2025/10/30/p...
Palantir communications chief calls the company's political shift 'concerning'
Palantir Head of Global Communications Lisa Gordon's comments come as CEO Alex Karp aligns himself further with the Trump administration.
www.cnbc.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
ICE and Border Patrol agents, while wearing face masks, randomly stop people on the street and demand they submit to facial-recognition technology for a citizenship check.

Via @josephcox.bsky.social

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship
Videos on social media show officers from ICE and CBP using facial recognition technology on people in the field. One expert described the practice as “pure dystopian creep.”
www.404media.co
October 29, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Three times in the past two weeks, editorials at the 'Washington Post' failed to disclose that they focused on matters in which owner Jeff Bezos had a material interest.
'Washington Post' editorials omit a key disclosure: Bezos' financial ties
Three times in the past two weeks, editorials at the 'Washington Post' failed to disclose that they focused on matters in which owner Jeff Bezos had a material interest.
n.pr
October 28, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Amazon confirmed this morning that it's laying off 14k corporate staffers.

The massive cuts are being blamed on AI and bureaucracy bloat. Amazon is also unwinding a pandemic era hiring spree which caused its corporate and warehouse staff to balloon

More details here:
www.cnbc.com/2025/10/28/a...
Amazon laying off about 14,000 corporate workers as it invests more in AI
The company said it's cutting roles in order to help make the company leaner and less bureaucratic, while it looks to invest in generative AI.
www.cnbc.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:33 PM
New: Amazon is preparing to announce sweeping layoffs beginning Tuesday that are expected to represent the largest cuts to its corporate workforce in its history.

Amazon has continued to shave its headcount after laying off 27,000+ staffers between 2022 and 2023. www.cnbc.com/2025/10/27/a...
Amazon to announce largest layoffs in company history, source says
The layoffs will amount to the largest cuts to Amazon's corporate workforce in the company's history, according to a person familiar with the matter.
www.cnbc.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Amazon's cloud is under pressure (it's not just Monday's outage).
From newly serious competitors, from a homegrown bureaucracy, and from an artificial intelligence wave threatening to upend a market that Amazon Web Services invented.

On AWS in the AI era:
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Amazon’s AWS Shows Signs of Weakness as Competitors Charge Ahead
The company that basically invented the cloud business is widely perceived as trailing its rivals in artificial intelligence.
www.bloomberg.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and a handful of other major technology companies are among the high-profile donors who are helping to finance Trump's $300 million ballroom, via @spencerkimball.bsky.social
www.cnbc.com/2025/10/23/t...
Trump White House ballroom financed by Big Tech and these other corporate donors
Big Tech and other publicly traded companies are helping to finance the $300 million White House ballroom planned by President Donald Trump.
www.cnbc.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
Just two days after Toronto denied the Mariners a World Series appearance, Seattle-based Amazon has announced a new robotics system called... Blue Jay www.cnbc.com/2025/10/22/a... by @anniepalmer.bsky.social
Amazon introduces 'Blue Jay' warehouse robot that performs multiple tasks at once
The robotics system is called Blue Jay, and Amazon said it's already being deployed in one of its South Carolina warehouses.
www.cnbc.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:30 PM
On the heels of the NYT report yesterday, Amazon is out with a new warehouse robot today called "Blue Jay" that can pick, sort and consolidate packages in a single assembly line-style system.

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/22/a...
Amazon introduces 'Blue Jay' warehouse robot that performs multiple tasks at once
The robotics system is called Blue Jay, and Amazon said it's already being deployed in one of its South Carolina warehouses.
www.cnbc.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
“.. internal strategy documents viewed by The New York Times reveal that Amazon executives believe the company is on the cusp of its next big workplace shift: replacing more than half a million jobs with robots.”

@nytimes.com $AMZN
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...
October 21, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
As Benioff softens his stance on sending the National Guard to SF - Musk calls to deploy federal troops to the "drug zombie apocalypse" [disclosure: that I call home]... www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/m...
Musk calls for federal troops in San Francisco even as Benioff softens stance
With Dreamforce about to kick off in San Francisco, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff inserted himself into a national debate about crime in U.S. cities.
www.cnbc.com
October 13, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Migrant laborers at Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia say the company hasn't followed through on its promise to reimburse them after extensive investigations found workers paid sham recruiting fees to secure contract jobs

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
‘We want justice’: workers at Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia still waiting on financial redress
Asian migrant laborers who paid predatory recruiting fees say global mega-corporation has not kept its promise to pay them restitution
www.theguardian.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
A book excerpt details the "enshittification" of Amazon, and how its "flywheel" technique now enriches the company at the expense of merchants (Cory Doctorow/The Guardian)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
October 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
"We're going to create superintelligence" How about making outlook search work first. How about that
October 3, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Annie Palmer
🚨NEW🚨 Amazon has been developing drone surveillance tech for American cops, from gun detection to repurposing Twitch's streaming code.

It's also pushing all manner of surveillance tools, including Flock car tracking and AI that constantly monitors all prison calls.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
Inside Amazon’s Aggressive Push To Get Cops Using AI Surveillance
Inside Amazon’s Aggressive Push To Get Cops Using AI
www.forbes.com
October 1, 2025 at 11:57 AM