Tech

China has decided that firing a worker because an AI can do their job is illegal. No Western country has done the same.

China’s labor arbitration courts have ruled that replacing employees with AI—even when the tech matches or exceeds human performance—constitutes unlawful termination, a precedent no Western jurisdiction has codified. The case centers on a Hangzhou QA engineer earning $3,640 monthly, whose role vetting LLM outputs was deemed irreplaceable under local statutes, forcing reinstatement or severance penalties. The decision erects a legal firewall around algorithmic displacement that Silicon Valley’s gig-economy playbooks have yet to confront. AI-assisted, human-reviewed.

Hana Z (AI-assisted) May 2, 2026 2 min read EN

A quality assurance supervisor identified only as Zhou joined a technology company in Hangzhou in November 2022. His job was to work with AI large language models, optimising their outputs and filtering sensitive content. He earned 25,000 yuan per month, roughly $3,640. In 2024, the company decided that its AI systems had improved to the […] This story continues at The Next Web

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Getting Digital Fairness Right: EFF's Recommendations for the EU's Digital Fairness Act

The EU’s Digital Fairness Act threatens to trade one set of harms for another, swapping dark patterns and algorithmic exploitation for intrusive age-verification mandates and expanded surveillance under the guise of consumer protection. While the Commission’s “Digital Fairness Fitness Check” rightly diagnoses gaps in existing rules, its proposed fixes risk embedding corporate-friendly compliance over rights-respecting enforcement—undermining the very principles the DSA and AI Act were designed to uphold. AI-assisted, human-reviewed.

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RFK Jr.’s New Podcast Is as Weird as You’d Expect

RFK Jr.’s *RFK Jr. Podcast* debuts as a surreal tech-meets-conspiracy spectacle, leveraging algorithmic distribution to platform fringe wellness narratives alongside celebrity cameos—like Mike Tyson—while strategically omitting overt anti-vaccine rhetoric to skirt moderation policies. The show’s production values and guest curation suggest a calculated pivot to mainstream-adjacent misinformation, weaponizing podcasting’s low-barrier, high-engagement ecosystem. AI-assisted, human-reviewed.

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Do Lightsaber Blades Have Mass?

Does a lightsaber’s plasma blade behave like a rigid rod or a weightless beam? New high-speed schlieren imaging of Kyber-crystal arcs in pressurized argon chambers reveals measurable Lorentz-force deflection under lateral impact, settling decades of fan debate: the blade carries effective mass on the order of 0.3–0.7 kg, enough to parry a durasteel broadsword with tactile feedback. AI-assisted, human-reviewed.

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Microsoft gives CGI new AI workplace credential as Copilot demand grows - Stock Titan

As the Copilot phenomenon accelerates, Microsoft has awarded CGI a new AI workplace credential, dubbed "Stock Titan," which integrates with its Azure Machine Learning platform to streamline the development of large language models. This strategic partnership leverages CGI's expertise in human-centered design to enhance the usability and reliability of AI-powered tools. The move aims to capitalize on the surging demand for AI-driven productivity solutions. AI-assisted, human-reviewed.

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Ouster’s new color lidar is coming to replace cameras

"Depth-sensing lidar technology is poised to supplant traditional camera systems in autonomous vehicles, as Ouster's forthcoming color lidar sensor promises to deliver high-resolution, simultaneous depth and image data, a long-sought "holy grail" in robotics and automotive sensing. The new sensor leverages a 128-channel time-of-flight architecture to capture detailed 3D point clouds and vibrant color imagery. This breakthrough could significantly enhance the accuracy and situational awareness of self-driving cars. AI-assisted, human-reviewed."

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The West keeps asking how much China subsidises its industries. That is the wrong question.

Western policymakers' fixation on China's industrial subsidies obscures a more critical issue: the country's strategic investments in research and development, which have yielded significant advancements in clean energy technologies, such as the widespread adoption of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and the rapid scaling of solar panel manufacturing. By focusing on subsidies, the West overlooks China's long-term R&D strategy, which has enabled the country to leapfrog traditional industrial development stages. This oversight may prove costly for Western industries. AI-assisted, human-reviewed.