Futurism – Tech News

Creator of Free Adobe Suite Strikes Again, Reverse Engineers Microsoft Office

“We were shocked by how well they actually worked internally, so decided to open source them,” ArtCraft co-founder Michael Caffrey told Futurism. “Adobe has been notoriously scummy in the past, and when using it we were shocked that this wasn’t an alternative, it was better.” Now, ArtCraft developer Brandon Thomas has thrown down the gauntlet once more by announcing open-source clones of Microsoft’s widely used Office suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/creator-free-adobe-suite-microsoft-office

AI Really Is Eviscerating Entry-Level Jobs, New Data Shows

According to a new report on New York City jobs data compiled by the nonprofit Center for an Urban Future — first reported by the City — job postings for entry-level roles in “computer and mathematical” occupations has plummeted by 49 percent since 2022, the latest indication that tech firms are using AI to justify a massive slowdown in new hires. Though computer science grads are bearing the brunt of the mayhem, tech jobs may just be the first domino to fall. As Urban Future’s executive director Jon Bowles told the City, “entry-level postings” overall have “fallen off a cliff, and the first rung of the ladder in tech is under pressure.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-eviscerating-entry-level-jobs-data-labor-nyc

Teachers Warn That Students Are Losing the Ability to Think as They Lean on AI for Everything

Students across the country are using AI models to complete assignments and write entire essays. Some of this constitutes cheating, but in many cases schools are allowing students to make some use of AI tools. This is a slippery slop. As some experts argue, any intrusion of automation into the writing process isn’t just threatening students’ composition skills, but their entire ability to think.
https://futurism.com/future-society/students-lose-ability-think-ai

Unitree Shows Off Fully Functional Mecha Suit

Chinese robotics company Unitree just showed off an explosive demo: a fully functional mecha suit for a human pilot. “We kindly request that all users refrain from making any dangerous modifications or using the robot in a hazardous manner,” the company said in its announcement.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/unitree-mecha-suit

Approaching Half of New Podcasts Appear to Be AI Slop

Of the 10,871 new podcast feeds created in the past nine days, 4,243 of them, or 39 percent, have signs of being AI-generated, data from the Podcast Index cited by Bloomberg last week showed. “It’s absurd,” Dave Jones, who runs the Podcast Index, said on his own show last week, per the outlet.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/half-ai-podcasts-slop

Body Horror Robot Turns Human Into Centaur

In video demonstrations released alongside a paper published in the International Journal of Robotics Research last month, an engineer can be seen walking around a university campus with a two-legged, centaur-inspired appendage striding along behind him.
https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/robot-human-centaur

Applying to Jobs Has Become an AI-Powered Wasteland

If you’re one of millions of job seekers struggling to find stable employment, just know it’s probably not you. Per the New York Times, the number of applications sent via LinkedIn has surged over 45 percent since 2024; the rate now stands at a dizzying 11,000 apps per minute on the site. One HR worker was gobsmacked when her fully-remote job posting received 400 applications in just 12 hours, surging to over 1,200 apps 36 hours later.
https://futurism.com/job-applications-ai-slop