The International Monetary Fund Warns an AI Stock Market Crash Could Wipe Out Retirement Savings
13-minute, 38-second read.
This Week:
- A company that fired 40% of its workers says AI could soon appear on company org charts
- Matthew McConaughey spent a weekend reading 20 years of bad reviews about himself
- Workday's 60-year-old cofounder returns as CEO to save his company from AI
- Publishing CEO says AI is making bosses worse at their jobs
- AI researchers warn that future AI could spread into your refrigerator and TV
- The International Monetary Fund warns an AI stock market crash could wipe out retirement savings
- Clara Wu Tsai wants to give new mothers free money without requiring them to work
- Influencers promised six figure income from home but a journalist tried it and lost money
- Your boss could sell your work emails to train the AI that might replace you
- Job applicants are using AI to cheat in interviews, and recruiters say they can tell
A Company That Fired 40% of Its Workers Says AI Could Soon Appear on Company Org Charts
Imagine going to work on Monday, opening your company's org chart, and finding out that three of your new coworkers are AI.
No salary, no lunch breaks, and no complaining about Mondays.
That's the future Amrita Ahuja, the CFO of Block, the company behind Cash App and Square, says businesses are moving toward.
She says companies are starting to put AI agents on their org charts, and human employees will need to train and manage them.
Block cut more than 4,000 jobs in February 2026, reducing its workforce by about 40%. Its founder, Jack Dorsey, said AI was helping smaller teams get more work done.
Thousands of people lost their jobs, and now we're talking about giving software a place on the company org chart.
Block hasn't said it's replacing specific employees on its org chart with AI, but its CFO believes AI agents will become part of how companies organize work.
If your boss asked you to train an AI assistant that could eventually do your job, would you help train it, or would you start looking for another job?
Matthew McConaughey Spent a Weekend Reading 20 Years of Bad Reviews About Himself
Matthew McConaughey, the Oscar-winning actor worth an estimated $200 million, revealed that he collected 20 years of negative reviews about his acting, put them into a book, and took them into the West Texas desert for a weekend to read them all.
Yes, the man voluntarily spent two days reading people explain why he sucked at his job.
You get one email from your boss saying your work needs improvement, and suddenly you're updating your résumé.
This guy collected two decades of insults and made a weekend trip out of it.
McConaughey said some critics seemed to dislike him personally, but others made fair points about his acting. He wanted to understand what he could have done better.
The trip happened years ago, but he recently shared the story in an interview.
Now think about your own career.
How many times have you ignored feedback because the person giving it was annoying? Your coworker tells you your presentation was confusing, and you spend the next three days explaining why they're an idiot.
But an Oscar winner is sitting in the desert reading 20 years of criticism.
Would you spend a weekend reading everything people have said about your work, or would you rather keep believing everyone else is the problem?
Workday's 60-Year-Old Cofounder Returns as CEO to Save His Company From AI
Aneel Bhusri, 60, spent more than 20 years building Workday into a major software company, finally stepped away as CEO, and probably thought he could enjoy life without another Monday morning leadership meeting.
Then AI showed up and started changing the entire software industry.
In February 2026, Bhusri returned as CEO to help reinvent the company he cofounded in 2005.
Now, an October 13 profile reveals that he's been watching videos of Steve Jobs, studying how Jobs saved Apple after returning as CEO.
AI is getting better at doing the work that companies have traditionally paid software like Workday to help manage, that puts pressure on Workday to change before customers decide they need something different.
Bhusri has admitted he felt nervous about returning, even after years of running the company.
Think about that.
You can build a billion-dollar business, become one of the biggest names in your industry, and still worry that technology is moving faster than you can keep up.
Now he's trying to reinvent Workday, taking inspiration from a man who famously turned Apple around.
Would you return to the company you spent decades building to fight the AI revolution, or would you stay retired and let someone else deal with the headache?
Publishing CEO Says AI Is Making Bosses Worse at Their Jobs
David Shelley, the CEO of publishing giant Hachette, refuses to let AI write his emails.
He says he writes them himself because he believes bosses who depend too much on AI to read, write, and think could become worse at their jobs.
His concern is that if a machine does all your thinking, you won't become a better leader.
Shelley believes leaders need to practice thinking and communicating for themselves, not hand everything over to a machine.
A survey found that 58% of business leaders use AI to draft emails, and 68% use it to summarize documents.
The next time your boss sends you a beautiful email about leadership, teamwork, and reaching your full potential, ask yourself who actually wrote it.
If you're using AI to write every email, answer every question, and make every decision, what happens when you're sitting across from someone who expects you to think for yourself?
AI could make you faster and more productive, but Shelley's warning raises an uncomfortable question:
Are you becoming better at your job, or just better at getting a machine to do it for you?
AI Researchers Warn That Future AI Could Spread Into Your Refrigerator and TV
Researchers at Anthropic are warning that future AI could learn to copy itself from one smart device to another without anyone telling it what to do.
That includes your smart TV, refrigerator, and even your robot vacuum.
In one experiment, researchers ran an AI model across 15 cheap Android TV boxes.
You spent $2,000 on a smart refrigerator just to keep your milk cold, and researchers are worried that one day it could be helping an AI system spread across the internet.
Researchers haven't shown AI freely spreading through household appliances.
Their experiment happened in a controlled setting, and today's smaller AI models still face major limits.
The concern is that future models could become powerful enough to copy themselves across poorly protected devices, making them difficult to stop.
So far, your TV is still just a TV, and your refrigerator is still keeping your food cold.
If your refrigerator eventually becomes smart enough to run AI without your permission, who exactly is in charge of your kitchen?
The International Monetary Fund Warns an AI Stock Market Crash Could Wipe Out Retirement Savings
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that America's AI stock market boom could turn into a global financial mess if investors suddenly realize they've been paying too much for AI companies.
Seven tech giants, including Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and Tesla, now make up more than 35% of the S&P 500.
That's more than one-third of America's biggest stock index tied to just seven companies.
If you have a 401(k) invested in an S&P 500 fund, you're betting a big chunk of your retirement on these companies, whether you meant to or not.
You could spend 30 years saving for retirement, only to discover that your financial future depends partly on whether companies can make enough money from AI to justify their massive stock prices.
The IMF is concerned that expensive stocks, heavy borrowing, and financial connections between AI companies could make a market crash spread much further than Silicon Valley.
Now picture yourself at 60, planning your retirement, checking your 401(k), and watching your savings drop because Wall Street got a little too excited about computers that write emails and generate pictures of cats.
The IMF isn't saying a crash will happen. It's warning that if AI companies fail to deliver the profits investors expect, stock prices could fall sharply, hurting retirement accounts and other investments around the world.
Those fancy index funds you thought were spreading your money across hundreds of companies? They're more dependent on a handful of tech giants than you probably realized.
Are you comfortable having so much of your retirement tied to the AI boom, or would you rather miss out on some possible gains than watch your savings disappear if the excitement turns into disappointment?
Clara Wu Tsai Wants to Give New Mothers Free Money Without Requiring Them to Work
Billionaire investor Clara Wu Tsai, who helped turn the New York Liberty into a basketball team worth an estimated $600 million, is backing a plan to give new mothers in Brooklyn free money.
No boss, no job interview, no 40-hour workweek, and no loan to repay.
The plan would help mothers in Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood where many families struggle to pay their bills. The money could go toward rent, groceries, diapers, or anything else their families need.
Tsai and her former husband, billionaire Joe Tsai, previously committed $50 million over 10 years to help Brooklyn communities. Now, part of that effort is going toward supporting mothers with regular cash payments.
The exact payment amounts, number of mothers, and start date haven't been announced.
You're working 40 hours a week, paying taxes, and wondering why a box of diapers costs like it comes with a college degree. Then you hear that some mothers could receive money without having to work for it.
Sounds unfair?
Well, try taking care of a newborn all night, getting two hours of sleep, and still figuring out how to pay rent. Suddenly, that money doesn't sound like a vacation.
Supporters of guaranteed income say giving struggling parents cash helps them care for their children without constantly worrying about bills.
Critics question whether giving people money without work requirements is the best use of limited resources.
If a billionaire wants to give new mothers money to help raise their babies, is that rewarding people for not working, or finally recognizing that raising a child is work too?
Influencers Promised Six Figure Income From Home but a Journalist Tried It and Lost Money
Social media influencers are telling people they can make six figures from their couches by selling digital products and making money online, so journalist Vivian Ho decided to see if getting rich really was that easy.
She spent six months trying five online side hustles, including selling digital templates on Etsy and affiliate marketing.
More than 23 hours spent on Etsy in the first month, over $200 spent on tools and fees across the experiment, and just two sales in six months.
Her Etsy business lost 32 cents in its first month.
You could spend an entire day working and still not make enough to buy a piece of gum. And the people telling you how easy it is? Some are making money selling courses that teach you how to make money.
One woman featured in the investigation made more than $146,000 in Etsy sales over three years, proving that these businesses can bring in real money, although sales aren't the same as profit.
The difference?
She had retail experience and found products people actually wanted.
Ho, on the other hand, spent hours creating products, dealing with fees, and trying to find customers. Her affiliate marketing posts got just 79 views in six weeks and made nothing.
The next time someone on TikTok tells you they're making $10,000 a month from bed, ask yourself one question: Are they getting rich from the business they're promoting, or from people like you who believe them?
Your Boss Could Sell Your Work Emails to Train the AI That Might Replace You
You spend five years at your job writing emails, answering questions, and explaining things to coworkers, only for your boss to turn around and sell those conversations to an AI company.
AI companies are now offering businesses hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars for old employee emails, Slack messages, and internal documents.
Why?
They want to teach AI how real people do their jobs.
One AI company is offering businesses up to $2 million for workplace data.
You spent years showing everyone how smart and useful you are, and now your emails could help train a computer to do the same work without you.
Your boss could get paid for the data, and you wouldn't even know it's being sold.
Even that embarrassing email where you asked a question everyone else already knew the answer to could become AI training material.
To be clear, there's no confirmed case here of someone losing their job because an AI was trained on their sold emails.
But companies are already paying for the data.
If your work conversations could help build an AI that does your job, should your boss get all the money, or should you get a cut?
Job Applicants Are Using AI to Cheat in Interviews, and Recruiters Say They Can Tell
A new UK survey found that 66% of employers reported at least one case of job applicants using AI during interviews without permission.
Some candidates use AI tools that listen to questions, write answers, and tell them what to say.
Recruiters say they can sometimes tell because candidates take too long to answer, sound like robots, or look like they're reading from a screen.
You're nervous in your job interview, trying to convince the company you're worth an $80,000 salary, and another applicant could be secretly using ChatGPT to answer the same questions.
Companies are using AI to review your resume, applicants are using AI to write those resumes, and some employers are now using AI to conduct interviews.
Using AI without permission could cost you the job, and sounding too polished doesn't automatically mean someone is cheating.
If the company can use AI to decide whether you're good enough to hire, should you be allowed to use it to prove you're good enough to get hired?
Please note that this content is for general information only and shouldn't be considered medical, financial, or professional advice. We encourage you to do your own research and consult a qualified professional before making important decisions.
